Frankfurt

Frankfurt

Skyline of Frankfurt am Main, Clockwise from top of left to right: Facade of the Römer and Frankfurt Cathedral, Statue of Charlemagne in Frankfurt Historical Museum, View of Frankfurt skyline and Main River

Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt on the Main), commonly known as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2012 population of 704,449.[2] The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010.[3] The city is at the centre of the larger Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region which has a population of 5,600,000[4] and is Germany's second-largest metropolitan region. Since the expansion of the European Union in 2007, the geographic midpoint of the European Union is about 40 kilometres east of Frankfurt am Main.

Frankfurt is the financial and transport centre of Germany and the largest financial centre in continental Europe. It is the seat of the European Central Bank, the German Federal Bank, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and the Frankfurt Trade Fair, as well as several large commercial banks, e.g. Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank and DZ Bank. Frankfurt Airport is one of the world's busiest international airports, Frankfurt Central Station is one of the largest terminal stations in Europe, the Frankfurter Kreuz is one of the most heavily used Autobahn interchanges in Europe. Additionally, Frankfurt's DE-CIX is the world's largest internet traffic exchange point.

Frankfurt is an international centre for finance, commerce, culture, transport, education, and tourism. It is therefore considered a global city (alpha world city) as listed by the Loughborough University group's 2010 inventory. Among global cities it was ranked 10th by the Global Power City Index 2011 and 11th by the Global City Competitiveness Index 2012. Among financial centers it was ranked 7th by the International Financial Centers Development Index 2012 and 10th by the Global Financial Centres Index 2013.

In 2011, the human-resource-consulting firm Mercer ranked Frankfurt as seventh in its annual "Quality of Living" survey of cities around the world.[5] According to The Economist cost of living survey, Frankfurt is Germany’s most expensive city, and the 10th most expensive in the world.[6]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt

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Notes

[1]^ "Die Bevölkerung der hessischen Gemeinden". Hessisches Statistisches Landesamt (in German). December 2011.
[2]^ Amt für Statistik, Frankfurt am Main, Einwohnerstand und Einwohnerbewegung in Frankfurt am Main – Drittes Quartal 2012
[3]^ (English) "World Urban Areas" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-09-20.
[4]^ Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Competitive Cities in the Global Economy, OECD Territorial Reviews, (OECD Publishing, 2006), Table 1.1
[5]^ "Mercer's Survey 2011". Mercer. 29 November 2011.
[6]^ "World's most expensive place to live is...". The Economist.

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Links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Germany
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt
http://www.frankfurt.de/