Nuremberg boasts a unique mixture of tradition and modern times. People born here and people who move here appreciate its extraordinary quality of life. Nuremberg is a modern city with 500,000 inhabitants, and the centre of a prospering European metropolitan region with 2.5 million inhabitants. Almost a thousand years of history are still obvious in its cityscape.
Nuremberg's life is colourful all year round. Its green spaces are popular all year round but particularly in the summer where residents like to spend time in the landscaped, near-natural river meadows of the River Pegnitz, in the parks, in the Field of Experiences for all the Senses, and in one of Europe's largest and most beautifully landscaped zoos. Thanks to a good public transport network, pastimes such as surfing in the Franconian Lake District or rock-climbing in the Fränkische Schweiz, are within easy reach.
Nuremberg, the second-largest city in Bavaria and the thirteenth-largest municipality in Germany, particularly since the EU Eastern expansion, has profited from its central location within the European economic region. Its location at the heart of Central Europe guarantees the City the status of a ‘Gateway’ region between the ‘old’ European Union and the new East European member states, and is ideally placed to take advantage of new business markets in Eastern Europe. It is also situated in one of Germany’s top 10 economic regions and is the economic and commercial centre of Northern Bavaria. The strengths of the Nuremberg economic region lie in the fields of communication and multimedia, traffic engineering and logistics, energy and environment, power electronics and service industry. Nuremberg's expertise, particularly in some seminal technologies, ranks among the top in Europe. Valuable impetus is given by research institutes located in the Nuremberg region, such as for example the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits.