live within the city limits. Adding the satellite towns around the urban area, the proposed metropolitan area of Bucharest would have a population of 2.26 million people. In 2020, the government used 2.5 million people as the basis for pandemic reports. Bucharest is the fourth largest city in the European Union by population within city limits, after Berlin, Madrid, and Rome, just ahead of Paris. Economically, Bucharest is the most prosperous city in Romania and the richest capital and city in the region, surpassing Budapest a few years ago. By 2050, certain economic studies reveal the fact that Bucharest will emerge as Europe's richest city in terms of GDP per capita, followed by Luxembourg City and Groningen. Furthermore, a new report by Grosvenor, revealed that Bucharest will already be the 3rd richest city in Europe by 2040. The city has a number of large convention facilities, educational institutes, cultural venues, traditional 'shopping arcades' and recreational areas. The city proper is administratively known as the 'Municipality of Bucharest' (), and has the same administrative level as that of a national county, being further subdivided into six sectors, each governed by a local mayor. Etymology The Romanian name București has an unverified origin. Tradition connects the founding of Bucharest with the name of Bucur, who was a prince, an outlaw, a fisherman, a shepherd or a hunter, according to different legends. In Romanian, the word stem bucurie means 'joy' ('happiness'), and it is believed to be of Dacian origin, hence the city Bucharest means 'city of joy'. Other etymologies are given by early scholars, including the one of an Ottoman traveller, Evliya Çelebi, who said that Bucharest was named after a certain 'Abu-Kariș', from the tribe of 'Bani-Kureiș'. In 1781, Austrian historian Franz Sulzer claimed that it was related to bucurie (joy), bucuros (joyful), or a se bucura (to be joyful), while an early 19th-century book published in Vienna assumed its name to be derived from 'Bukovie', a beech forest. In English, the city's name was formerly rendered as Bukarest. A native or resident of Bucharest is called a 'Bucharester' (). History Bucharest's history alternated periods of development and decline from the early settlements in antiquity until its consolidation as the national capital of Romania late in the 19th century. First mentioned as the 'Citadel of București' in 1459, it became the residence of the Voivode of Wallachia, Vlad III the Impaler.