# Cologne, Germany

Canonical destination: bctl:cologne
City profile: https://bestcitytolive.com/city/cologne
API snapshot: bctl-destinations-47f0620be1025f8fa455
Catalog version: 2026-10-29

An editorial research destination catalog, not a best-city ranking or official Civometra quarterly result. Projected urban-footprint context is separate from municipal statistics, reviewed guides and V1 index evidence.

Profile: evidence-profile · guide-research-pending
Guide review: Not reviewed; local guide research pending.
A source-backed urban evidence profile. Local arrival, neighborhood, safety and service guidance has not been reviewed; no editorial guide date is assigned.

## Source-defined urban context
- Source footprint: 1186 · Cologne
- Constituent source names: Cologne; Leverkusen; Bergisch Gladbach
- Source country labels: GADM Germany; UN WPP Germany
- Edition: GHS-UCDB R2024A V1-2; morphological reference 2025
- Projected population (2025): 1156303.314 persons; original source literal 1156303.314
- Source footprint area (2025): 296 km2; original source literal 296
- Derived projected density: 3906.430114864865 persons/km2 = 1156303.314 / 296
Publisher 2025 population projection from GHS-POP R2023A and morphological urban-footprint area; density is their ratio. Not a current census count, municipal population or livability score. Shared footprints repeat one contextual measurement, not independent city estimates.

Morphological urban centres are not municipalities or commuting functional urban areas. These contextual records are excluded from Civometra scoring.
Reference point: 50.96591069147059, 6.968745411992969. Publisher urban-footprint centroid transformed from ESRI:54009; contextual source point, not a separately reviewed city-center pin or municipal boundary.

## Original source and reproduction
Mari Rivero et al. (2024). GHS-UCDB R2024A – GHS Urban Centre Database 2025. European Commission, JRC. doi:10.2905/1a338be6-7eaf-480c-9664-3a8ade88cbcd. V1-2.
Publisher: European Commission, Joint Research Centre
Original dataset: https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/1a338be6-7eaf-480c-9664-3a8ade88cbcd
Original methodology: https://human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu/documents/GHSL_UCDB_R2024_V1_2.pdf
Population model: https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/2ff68a52-5b5b-4a22-8f40-c41da8332cfe
Original archive: https://bestcitytolive.com/data/source-frames/ghsl-ucdb-general-v1_2-bc879d823205.zip
Original archive SHA-256: bc879d82320504f89df2041b7936221c8239cd808abe93980493aed062b4f3d6
Native geometry WKB SHA-256: 2a3f5e48be6cd8b38d2783dbb648f6816549805e41c6912aec6ff3f73a31dafc
Native geometry validity: true; unchanged source validity is not scoring or boundary approval.
Source retrieved: 2026-10-26; retrieval is not an observation or guide-review date.
European Commission reuse notice: reuse authorised with source acknowledgement; underlying third-party terms remain applicable.

Shared physical source: ghsl-ucdb-r2024a-v1-2:1186
Other destination bindings: None in this catalog.
Repeated bindings to the same physical source footprint are not independent urban estimates.

## Ranking and guide coverage
No new overall score, ordinal rank, winner or official quarterly result is supplied. Inclusion is an editorial research choice, not assessed city merit.

No inherited score, V1 assessment or reviewed local dossier is assigned to this added destination.

## Machine-readable resource
https://bestcitytolive.com/api/v2/destinations/cologne.json
Destination content SHA-256: 15b8e4fa73dd901caf1d9413bc67bbb598025dd7f2315fe9cb6d134614c4cf35

Source acknowledgement and the original publisher terms apply. This API grants no new rights over third-party measurements. BestCityToLive owns its original editorial selection, code and derivations, not the underlying JRC or U.S. Census Bureau observations.