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north - south divide. As shown in Table 1A, in the Appendix, the geographic core finds its beginning
on the Western UK coast, with the cluster of adjoining core regions consisting of Merryside, Greater
Manchester, and west and south Yorkshire. The multiple urban core region of West Midlands is
surrounded by adjacent regions; however, it leads to the largest UK cluster of adjacent core regions
with Greater London as its turning point to the South. The adjacent region of Kent serves as the UK
thoroughfare to the core regions of the European continent. On the continent, the core regions of the
Netherlands and Belgium provide a core region continuum to similar regions in western Germany.
The French administrative region of Ile-De-France is France’s only core region. The adjacent
regions of Picardi and Champagne-Ardenne connect Ile-De-France in the north via Namur to the
Belgian cluster of core regions. Ile-De-France is an offshoot of the contiguous adjoining EU
geographic core regions. It, and its surrounding adjacent regions of the Basin Parisian flank the
southern regions of the geographic core. Furthermore, they serve as a thoroughfare from the UK to the
southwestern German core regions.
The European geographic core finds its largest concentration in the adjoining core regions
located in the six western, southwestern, and southern German provinces. In the west, the cluster of
Dutch geographic core regions extends into the German Province of Nordrhein-Westfalen, with the
core region of Düsseldorf as its centre. From Nordrhein-Westfalen, the geographic core extends north
into the Province of Niedersachsen, and east into the Province of Hessen. The province of Rheinland-
Pfalz borders on the two provinces of Saarland and Baden-Württemberg. All the regions in these two
provinces are adjoining core regions. To the East of Baden-Württemberg lies the southern German
Province of Bayern, with its cluster of adjoining core regions, which extend to the northern border of
Austria. Of the fifty-two core regions that form the EU geographic core, Germany contributes a
geographic continuum of twenty-five core regions, which constitutes 48% of the geographic core.
Since Düsseldorf, in Germany, is a core region with five urban agglomerates each with a population
density greater than 2,000 per square kilometre, this region is assumed to be the centre of the
geographic core.