It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and its monocentric metropolitan area is the second-largest in the EU. The municipality covers 604.3 km2 (233.3 sq mi) geographical area.

Madrid lies on the River Manzanares in the central part of the Iberian Peninsula at about 650 meters above mean sea level.

It has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million