Sister cities of Copenhagen

Copenhagen (IPA /ˈkoʊpənheɪɡən/ or /ˈkoʊpənhɑːɡən/; Danish: København [kʰøb̥m̩ˈhɑʊ̯ˀn] ( listen)) is the capital of Denmark and its most populous city, with an urban population of 1,230,728 and a metropolitan population of 1,956,278 (as of 1 July 2013 (2013-07-01)). Copenhagen is situated on the eastern coast of Zealand and stretches across parts of Amager. A number of bridges and tunnels connect the parts of the city together, and the cityscape is characterized by promenades and waterfronts.

Originally a Viking fishing village founded in the 10th century, Copenhagen became the capital of Denmark in the beginning of the 15th century. During the 17th century, under the reign of Christian IV, it became a significant regional centre. Since the turn of the millennium, Copenhagen has seen strong urban and cultural development, partly due to large investments in cultural facilities and infrastructure.

Since the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge, the metropolitan area of Copenhagen has become increasingly integrated with the Swedish province Scania and its largest city, Malmö. The entire area, known as Øresund region has 3.8 million inhabitants at an area of 20.000 km². (1.3 million of these lives at the Swedish side of Øresund at an area of approx 11.000 km²)

Copenhagen is the cultural, economic and governmental centre of Denmark and is among the financial centres of Northern Europe with the Copenhagen Stock Exchange. Copenhagen has 89,000 students enrolled in its educational institutions.

A diverse infrastructure allows for a blend of bicycles, cars and public transport while the Copenhagen Metro serves central Copenhagen together with the S-train. The latter also connects the outlying boroughs. For rail transports from suburbs, systems of regional and local trains also are available as well as trains to southern Sweden. The Copenhagen Airport is the largest international airport in the Nordic countries, serving 23.3 million passengers in 2012. The city currently hosts many construction sites due to ongoing improvements in infrastructure and expansion of the Metro.