South-Western Scania
The metropolitan area surrounding the cities of Malmö and Lund are usually denoted as Sydvästra Skåne (South-Western Scania), or more seldom Stor-Malmö (Metropolitan Malmö, or rather "Greater Malmö"). It constitutes the south-eastern part of the Scandinavian Öresund Region. The area covers the south-western part of Scania in the southern-most part of Sweden. The metropolitan area is the third largest metropolitan area in Sweden after Metropolitan Stockholm and Metropolitan Gothenburg.
Lund, which today is the smaller city, was historically the most important in Scania, with the Lund Cathedral (and Cathedral School) from the 11th century and the Lund University established in the 17th century. Today the city of Malmö is the largest due to its strong growth during the period of industrialization from the 19th century.
Clustered along the shore of The Sound, from the medieval town of Skanör in the South to Bjärred in the North, a set of villages and towns have in the latter half of the 20th century expanded to an almost continuous set of suburbs. The commuter belt in the inland consists of more separate towns and expanded villages. The inclusion of the harbor town Trelleborg at the Baltic Sea in the South, or the exclusion of Eslöv, Höör and Landskrona in the North, has necessarily to appear arbitrary.
Since the 1970s, improved highways and commuter train connections have ment that the actual metropolitan area has grown to include Ystad, Skurup, Sjöbo, Eslöv, Höör, Landskrona and Helsingborg. It's not uncommon to live by Malmö and work either in Ystad or Helsingborg, or vice versa. Mentally, however, these towns have kept their allegiance with older divisions of Scania. Inhabitants of Eslöv and Höör consider themselves to live in Central Scania, like Landskrona still is grouped together with Helsingborg rather than Malmö–Lund.
Statistics
| Municipality | Population | Area¹ | Density²
|
| Malmö | 267,171 | 156 | 1712.6
|
| Lund | 100,995 | 430 | 234.9
|
| Trelleborg | 39,110 | 342 | 114.4
|
| Vellinge | 31,300 | 143 | 218.9
|
| Kävlinge | 25,539 | 154 | 165.8
|
| Staffanstorp | 20,238 | 108 | 187.4
|
| Lomma | 18,311 | 56 | 327.0
|
| Svedala | 18,269 | 219 | 83.4
|
| Burlöv | 15,257 | 19 | 803.0
|
| Total | 539,190 | 1,627 | 329.6
|
1/ km²
2/ Population per km²
