World Metropolitan Day Date in the current year: October 14, 2024

The term “metropolis” refers to a major city or conurbation (usually with a population of over 1 million) that serves as a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region. Metropolises often act as crucial hubs for regional or international connections, communications, and commerce.

Most metropolises lie at the heart of a larger metropolitan area, often shortened to metro. A metropolitan area encompasses a densely populated urban conglomeration and its surrounding areas, comprising multiple cities and municipalities that share infrastructure, transport network, commercial areas, and industries.

One of the main issues arising from the growth of metropolises is governance, which becomes more and more complicated as cities grow beyond their original boundaries. A metropolis is a complicated system consisting of the central city and its surrounding communities, which are interconnected by economic, cultural, social, and environmental links.

In October 2015, the Thematic Meeting on Metropolitan Areas took place in Montreal as part of the lead-up to Habitat III (the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development). The resulting Declaration on Metropolitan Areas outlined the key challenges and transformations needed to create more inclusive and interconnected metropolitan areas.

Two years later, the New Urban Agenda was adopted to highlight the need for inclusive and effective metropolitan governance that would transcend administrative boundaries and respect functional territories. It encouraged subnational and local governments to take a more active part in addressing key territorial, metropolitan, and urban challenges.

World Metropolitan Day was inaugurated in 2018; originally celebrated on October 7, it was moved to October 14 starting in 2024. The campaign is coordinated by Metropolis and UN-Habitat. Metropolis is a Barcelona-based organization that fosters global cooperation to transform the world’s metropolises towards more sustainable, resilient and equal societies. UN-Habitat is a UN program for human settlements with a focus on sustainable urban development.

Every year, World Metropolitan Day brings together mayors and other metropolitan leaders from around the world, giving them a platform to exchange knowledge and solutions that will help to promote a better urban future. World Metropolitan Day events include summits, conferences, gatherings, panel discussions, and more.

These events are held in various cities in different parts of the world, but every year the organizers choose a new city that hosts the global observance. In addition, each edition has a unique theme focusing on a specific aspect of sustainable urban development. Past themes have included “Resilience for all: creating caring metropolises beyond COVID-19”, “Crossing Boundaries”, “Turn Nature into Our Ally”, and “Look Beyond City Boundaries”.