1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
Germany
Compare this sourced profile of Köln, Germany before planning. Stable fields identify the place; confirm current transport, access and opening details with official sources.
01What the data says — and does not say
This page separates the checked GeoNames row for Köln—1,024,621, Europe/Berlin, and source coordinates—from live travel claims. Those fields identify and compare the record; they do not prove current transport, accessibility, census totals, or a City Atlas Club visit.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Köln is GeoNames ID 2886242. Its recorded administrative path is Regierungsbezirk Koeln → North Rhine-Westphalia → Germany, and GeoNames classifies the place as a second-order administrative seat. Köln occurs once as a primary city label in this atlas sample; the numeric ID remains the durable source key if names change. The city row itself was updated 2026-05-06; that date belongs to the source record, not to every transport or visitor detail in the real destination.
Within the fixed 1,206-record atlas, Köln ranks 533 by recorded population. Inside the 15 selected Germany entries it ranks 4; inside the 125 entries in its broad region it ranks 37. Its 1,024,621 population value is 1.73 times the 593,085 median for the country cohort and 1.54 times the 664,046 regional median. Köln falls between the leading tenth and quarter of this atlas's Germany population cohort. Köln's recorded value is above the country-cohort median but remains below twice that benchmark. These comparisons describe this selected dataset only; they are not current census rankings or official urban-area boundaries.
Köln's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Düsseldorf at 34.367 km with 618,685 recorded people; Duisburg at 56.977 km with 504,358 recorded people; Essen at 58.343 km with 593,085 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 23.976 km. Compared with Düsseldorf, Köln's recorded population is 1.66 times as large. Against Köln, Düsseldorf follows Duesseldorf District → North Rhine-Westphalia → Germany in the source. Its point has higher latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected Germany cohort, uses the shared Europe/Berlin identifier, and carries first-order administrative seat rather than second-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is below Köln's. Against Köln, Duisburg follows Duesseldorf District → North Rhine-Westphalia → Germany in the source. Its point has higher latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected Germany cohort, uses the shared Europe/Berlin identifier, and carries third-order administrative seat rather than second-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is below Köln's. Against Köln, Essen follows Duesseldorf District → North Rhine-Westphalia → Germany in the source. Its point has higher latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected Germany cohort, uses the shared Europe/Berlin identifier, and carries third-order administrative seat rather than second-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is below Köln's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 341 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Köln's nearest-coordinate gap sits in the second quarter of atlas distances. This pattern can reveal whether other catalog references are geographically close, but it cannot establish whether a border crossing is possible or practical, or whether rail, road, fare, or journey-time connections exist. Read as one record signature, GeoNames 2886242, the coordinate pair 50.9333 / 6.9500, country rank 4 of 15, and neighbor GeoNames 2934246 at 34.367 km bind Köln to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Köln's reference point is 50.9333° north and 6.9500° east. The IANA identifier Europe/Berlin is shared by 15 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPLA2 is shared by 341 rows. Köln's row carries both second- and first-order administrative labels. Köln's point falls in the higher-latitude coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Köln's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Köln, so the profile preserves that missing value instead of guessing terrain. Together these fields form a reproducible identity check for this page, not a claim about walkability, climate or accessibility.
03Nearby atlas references
Köln's closest other entries in this atlas are Düsseldorf (34.367 km), Duisburg (56.977 km), Essen (58.343 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Köln, confirm changing decisions with current first-party sources:
Read how City Atlas Club verifies changing travel facts →05Sources and freshness
GeoNames updated the row 2026-05-06; the atlas checked the dataset 2026-08-04. Available Wikidata fields were verified in the same run.
GeoNames data: CC BY 4.0. Wikidata labels and descriptions: CC0 1.0.