According to the 2011 census, 1,883,425 inhabitants live within the city limits, a decrease from the 2002 census. Adding the satellite towns around the urban area, the proposed metropolitan area of Bucharest would have a population of 2.27 million people. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Romanian government used 2.5 million people as the basis for reporting infection rate in the city. Bucharest is the fourth largest city in the European Union by population within city limits, after Berlin, Madrid, and Rome, just ahead of Paris.