The largest French, German, and British cities in 1806. The list is interesting because it shows the ranking of these cities on the eve of the Industrial Revolution, i.e. before the Industrial Revolution completely changed the size and ranking of the Western European cities. It also shows indirectly which Western European cities have the largest pre-industrial city centers (if they haven't been destroyed during WW2).
French figures come from the 1806 Napoleonic census, which was the best census taken in France in the early 19th century. British figures are a linear interpolation of the 1801 and 1811 British censuses. Belfast is a pre-census estimate. As for Germany, figures come from the various censuses organized by each city and state.
The population for each city is within city limits. Today it would make such a list useless, due to suburbanization, but back in 1806 all built-up areas were still contained within the city limits, except for London, where the figure given here refers to the city and its suburbs.
Population in 1806:
- London: 934,399
- Paris: 649,412
- Berlin: 170,000 (1806)
- Lyon: 114,184
- Hamburg: 106,983 (1811)
- Manchester: 99,830
- Marseilles: 99,169
- Bordeaux: 92,219
- Edinburgh: 92,210
- Liverpool: 89,394
- Glasgow: 88,298
- Rouen: 86,672
- Birmingham: 79,482
- Nantes: 77,226
- Bristol: 69,747
- Lille: 68,800
- Leeds: 57,658
- Dresden: 55,711 (1806)
- Toulouse: 51,689
- Strasbourg: 51,465
- Plymouth: 49,208
- Orléans: 42,651
- Nîmes: 41,195
- Munich: 40,638 (1810)
- Frankfurt: 40,485 (1810)
- Cologne: 40,400 (1807)
- Amiens: 39,853
- Metz: 39,523
- Norwich: 37,043
- Portsmouth: 36,713
- Caen: 36,231
- Bremen: 36,041 (1807)
- Paisley: 33,837
- Sheffield: 33,501
- Magdeburg: 33,466 (1804)
- Montpellier: 33,264
- Leipzig: 32,146 (1800)
- Rochdale: 32,910
- Rheims: 31,779
- Nottingham: 31,442
- Aberdeen: 31,249
- Brest: 31,169
- Clermont-Ferrand: 30,982
- Nancy: 30,532
- Braunschweig/Brunswick: 29,950 (1812)
- Bath: 29,530
- Rennes: 29,225
- Angers: 29,187
- Troyes: 29,005
- Besançon: 28,727
- Augsburg: 28,534 (1806)
- Toulon: 28,170
- Newcastle: 27,974
- Dundee: 27,794
- Aachen/Aix-la-Chapelle: 27,168 (1808)
- Versailles: 26,974
- Dunkirk: 26,628
- Saint-Etienne: 26,070
- Nuremberg: 25,176 (1806)
- Le Havre: 25,078
- Belfast: ca. 25,000