[symmetricsaurus]

1.4 million in the urban area and 2.1 million in the metropolitan area is not exactly tiny.

Tel Aviv is for example smaller, but I guess that the comparison is to the bay area/silicon valley or something like that.

[Peer]

Tel Aviv is probarbly larger than Stockholm though.

The Swedish definition of "metropolitan" area is skewed, it consists of several cities and according to wikipedia its 6,519 km2 that is compared to Tel Avivs metropolian area of 1,516 km2. Still Tel Avivs has a metropolitan population of 3.4 million people compared to Stockholm's 2.1 million.

[adsr]

Stockholm is located on a group of islands on the other hand which impacts the surface area.

[dbaupp]

Just for others' reference, the metropolitan area of Stockholm[0] is the whole of the Stockholm county.

Just looking at the map, a slightly better/more conventional measure of Stockholm might be Stockholm municipality[1] + Huddinge, Sundbyberg and Solna, which gives an area of 350 km2 and a population of about 1.1 million.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_areas_in_... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_Municipality

[subsystem]

I would really only call the city centre [0] an "urban area" i.e. somewhere you could find a decent bar etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_City_Centre

[ttrt]

6.5k km2 is actually more than 1/4 of Israel's land area (20,770/22,072 km)

[flexie]

Also, the Stockholm startup scene mainly attracts talent among the 9.5 million Swedes, whereas Tel Aviv benefits from immigration from Russia (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15797257).

San Francisco attracts talent from all over the US, or rather from all over the world.

[skreech]

Population-wise, San Francisco is also smaller than the city of Stockholm.

But it is a tiny tiny tiny startup ecosystem.

[SeanLuke]

Stockholm has the same metro area size as teeny tiny Baltimore. :-)