North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous of the 16 states of Germany. North Rhine-Westphalia is located in western Germany covering an area of 34,084 square kilometres (13,160 sq mi), which makes it the fourth-largest state. Apart from the city-states it is also the most densely populated German state. NRW has a population of 17.9 million making it the largest German state by population and features 30 of the 81 German municipalities with over 100,000 inhabitants, including Cologne (over 1 million), the state capital Düsseldorf, Dortmund and Essen (all about 600,000 inhabitants) and other cities predominantly located in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area, the largest urban area in Germany and the third-largest on the European continent. The flag of the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia is a horizontal tricolor consisting of green, white and red. After the establishment of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1946, the tricolor was first introduced in 1948, but was not formally adopted until 1953. The plain variant of the tricolor is considered the civil flag and state ensign, while government authorities use the state flag (Landesdienstflagge) which is defaced with the state’s coat of arms. Full HD.