The Hamburg Metropolitan Region () is a metropolitan area centred around the city of Hamburg in northern Germany, consisting of eight districts () in the federal state of Lower Saxony, six districts () in the state of Schleswig-Holstein and two districts in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern along with the city-state of Hamburg itself. It covers an area of roughly and is home to more than 5.1 million inhabitants. History On 1 January 2006 the office of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region opened, as agreed in a state treaty of cooperation () between Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein. Geography As of 2005, the Hamburg Metropolitan Region was made up of the city of Hamburg along with numerous rural districts in Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, altogether comprising 800 cities, towns and municipalities with an overall land area of . Since then it has expanded to cover the districts of Ludwigslust-Parchim (partially from 2012, entirely from 2017) and Nordwestmecklenburg (from 2012) in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. * Districts and independent () cities. † Ludwigslust was merged into Ludwigslust-Parchim in 2011; pop. data for 2010 Larger Urban Zones The Hamburg Larger Urban Zone (LUZ) as defined by Eurostat's Urban Audit covers an area of 7,303 km2 and in 2004 had a population of 3,134,620 inhabitants. The Larger Urban Zone covers only the city of Hamburg and its directly neighbouring districts. The Hamburg LUZ corresponds with the service area of the Hamburger Verkehrsverbund (HVV) transport association with an average population density of at least 150 inhabitants/km2. * Districts and independent () cities. † not part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region See also Metropolitan regions in Germany List of metropolitan areas in the European Union by GDP References External links Metropolregion Hamburg - official webpage Geography of Hamburg Geography of Lower Saxony Geography of Schleswig-Holstein Metropolitan areas of Germany Economy of Hamburg