Munich (/ˈmjuːnɪk/ MEW-nik; German: München [ˈmʏnçn̩] ⓘ; Bavarian: Minga [ˈmɪŋ(ː)ɐ] ⓘ) is the capital and most populous city of the Free State of Bavaria, Germany. With a population of 1,594,632 inhabitants as of 31 May 2024,[3] it is the third-largest city by population in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg, and thus the largest which does not constitute its own state, as well as the 11th-largest city in the European Union. The Munich metropolitan area – including suburbs and satellite towns – has 3 million inhabitants; and the city's metropolitan region is home to about 6.2 million people and is the third largest metropolitan region by GDP in the European Union.[4] Straddling the banks of the river Isar north of the Alps, Munich is the seat of the Bavarian administrative region of Upper Bavaria, while being the most densely populated municipality in Germany with 4,500 people per km2. Munich is the second-largest city in the Bavarian dialect area, after the Austrian capital of Vienna.