This regional focus analyses the 258 metropolitan regions in the European Union. It asks two main questions: 1) Is the EU becoming more metropolitan? and 2) Why do some metros grow fast?It shows that overall, the population and GDP share of metros have not increased substantially since 2000. Most countries in the Union did not see a significant change in the share of population in metros between 2000 and 2006. Five countries even saw their population share in metros shrink, as for example in Ireland and the UK . Some countries did see an increase in thepopulation share of their metros, including Bulgaria, Austria and Finland. In most EU countries, economic activity did not shift to metros. Some of the less developed EU countries, however, did experience a significant shift in economic activities to their metros and especially their capital metro. This was notably the case in the three Baltic States, as well as Bulgaria, Hungary and Greece