In the 1990s, though the evidence is not completely clear, the European system of cities appears to be evolving in complex, even contradictory, ways. Much of the difficulty of interpretation concerns the appropriate geographical scale of analysis. At the broadest geographical scale, there is continued growth of mega-urban regions, particularly in the Central Capital Region (South East England; Ile-de-France; Randstad Holland) but also around the largest political and commercial capital cities in other regions of Europe (Copenhagen, Milan, Madrid). But, at a finer geographical scale, there is a noticeable geographical deconcentration from the most heavily urbanised areas which form the cores of these regions, including most of the capital cities of North-West Europe (London, Paris, Brussels, Copenhagen), with the most severe losses occurring where urban decentralisation is reinforced by industrial decline and the loss of port activities (United Nations 1997, 57). The gainers are smaller metropolitan areas within the outer parts of the same regions, which have been among the fastest-growing urban areas in Europe; in the very largest and densest urban regions (London, Randstad Holland), there is a process of long-distance deconcentration from the largest central cities to wide rings of medium-sized cities in the surrounding rural areas.