Nordstad

Nordstad is a development area in north-central Luxembourg, and a colloquial term to refer to the combined urban areas in the region. The name is Luxembourgish for 'northern city', but it remains the title, both formal and informal, of the region in any language.

The idea was coined by Luxembourgian economist Adrien Ries on 2 June 1973. The idea of a unified urban area in the north of the country was put forward to decentralise and diversify the economy, and develop a third major urban area, along with Luxembourg City and the southern Red Lands.

Nordstad includes a total of fifteen communes, predominantly in the canton of Diekirch, but also including communes in Mersch and Vianden.

The fifteen communes are:

Altogether, the fifteen communes have a population of 33,233, or approximately 7% of Luxembourg's total population. This is over an area of 301.8 km², which is 12% of Luxembourg's territory. Thus, the whole Nordstad region is more sparsely populated than Luxembourg as a whole, despite Nordstad's name.

Development activity in Nordstad is concentrated on the centre, and most urbanised area, formed by the six core communes of Bettendorf, Colmar-Berg, Diekirch, Erpeldange, Ettelbruck, and Schieren. Except Colmar-Berg, all of them are in Diekirch canton, and lie in the valley of the middle Sauer. Of the six, Diekirch and Ettelbruck have city status and rank within the top twenty most-populated communes in the Grand Duchy.

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