Which European Cities Have the Most Airbnbs per Resident?

Paris has more Airbnb listings than any of the other five cities in this comparison. That is interesting, but it does not answer the whole question. A large city has more of most things.

Divide the listings by the resident population and the picture becomes more useful. Athens moves ahead of cities with larger raw totals. Amsterdam also rises above Barcelona and Madrid.

For this comparison, we counted listing records in six June 2026 Inside Airbnb datasets and paired them with official city population figures. Paris comes first at 36.9 listings per 1,000 residents, followed by Athens at 22.3.

This is a comparison of six selected cities, not a claim to have identified the highest rate anywhere in Europe. It measures the concentration of listing records relative to people, which is different from counting occupied homes, bookings or visitors.

The ranking at a glance

The calculation is listing records ÷ residents × 1,000, rounded to one decimal place. The listing snapshots fall within the same month; the official population figures have different reference dates, listed below. That makes this a useful broad comparison rather than an exact, same-day census.

The six cities in detail

Paris: a large total inside a relatively tight boundary

Paris leads both by total listings and by listings per resident. Our count of its 16 June 2026 dataset is 77,679 records, equivalent to 36.9 per 1,000 people using INSEE's 2023 resident figure for Paris. (Inside Airbnb data; INSEE population)

The boundary is crucial. Here, Paris means the city and department of Paris. It does not mean the much larger metropolitan area that people may have in mind when they discuss the French capital.

Putting central-city listings over a metropolitan population would artificially lower the rate. Doing the reverse would exaggerate it. A table can look very precise while making that basic mistake.

Within the Paris file, 69,265 records are labelled entire homes or apartments, approximately 89.2% of the total. That tells us about the advertised accommodation type. It does not establish that each record represents a different home permanently removed from residential use.

The headline is therefore specific: Paris has the highest concentration of recorded Airbnb listings relative to residents among these six city datasets.

Athens: the raw total hides the concentration

Athens has fewer listing records than Madrid and Barcelona, yet a much higher rate per resident in this comparison. Its 14,342 records work out at 22.3 per 1,000 residents using the 2021 census population of 643,452. (Inside Airbnb data; ELSTAT census)

Again, the definition is the municipality of Athens, not the whole Athens urban area or the Attica region. That matters because a visitor's idea of a destination can extend well beyond an administrative boundary.

The population denominator is also older than those used for the other cities. It is an official census count, but it should not be mistaken for a measured 2026 population. If the resident count has changed, the precise current ratio will differ.

The result still illustrates why raw totals alone can be misleading. A city does not need the largest number of listings to have a substantial number relative to its resident population.

Amsterdam: a smaller market can rank higher per resident

Amsterdam has the fewest listing records in our table, at 10,465. Yet its rate of 11.2 per 1,000 residents puts it third. We use the 15 June 2026 listing snapshot and the CBS municipality population of 934,526 at 1 January 2025. (Inside Airbnb data; CBS population table)

That is the clearest example of the denominator changing the answer. Ranked only by listings, Amsterdam is last here. Ranked relative to residents, it sits above three larger cities.

For someone researching a market, this is a reason to look beyond a headline count. The more relevant next comparison may involve neighbourhoods and similar properties rather than another entire city.

A host managing a small apartment in one part of Amsterdam is not competing equally with every property in the dataset. Size, location, availability and guest needs will narrow the comparison substantially.

Barcelona: citywide averages leave out the neighbourhood story

Barcelona's June file contains 15,406 records. Against an official municipality population of 1,731,649 at 1 January 2025, that gives 8.9 listings per 1,000 residents. (Inside Airbnb data; Idescat population)

The records are not evenly spread. In the file, Eixample contains 5,880 listings and Ciutat Vella contains 3,280. Together they account for around 59.5% of the city's records.

That does not give either district's per-resident rate. We would need matching district populations to calculate that. It does show why an average for the whole city cannot describe every local experience.

A quieter residential area and a heavily visited central district can sit inside the same city total while presenting very different practical conditions. Noise, shared entrances, waste storage and guest arrival patterns are all matters to understand at the property and building level.

Madrid: second by total, fifth by this measure

Madrid has 22,835 records, the second-largest total in the table. Dividing by the municipality's registered population of 3,497,277 at 1 January 2026 puts it fifth, at 6.5 per 1,000 residents. (Inside Airbnb data; Madrid City Council population release)

The citywide figure also covers a concentrated pattern. The Centro district has 9,537 records in this file, around 41.8% of the total.

As with Barcelona, this is a count concentration, not a neighbourhood population ratio. It is a prompt for more detailed research rather than a substitute for it.

Madrid provides a useful warning about calling a market “large” or “small” without saying what that means. A city can offer a large amount of accommodation overall and still have fewer listings per resident than a smaller destination.

Berlin: the largest population in this comparison

Berlin's 12,855 records give a rate of 3.5 per 1,000 residents using the official population of 3,700,577 at 31 December 2025. This is the census-based population series in the Berlin-Brandenburg statistical office's June 2026 annual report, table 1. (Inside Airbnb data; official population report, June 2026, table 1)

It is the lowest rate among our six cities, but that should not be turned into a claim that Berlin is an easy or attractive place to open a rental. This calculation contains no evidence about permission to operate, demand for a particular home or the costs of running it.

It also says nothing about the number of nights those listings accept. A room offered occasionally and a whole apartment listed for long stays can both appear as records.

The figure answers one narrow question well. It should not be asked to answer half a dozen investment and housing questions at the same time.

What we counted, and what we did not

We counted unique listing IDs in each city's public summary CSV. All six files had one row per unique ID, so no duplicate IDs needed removing. We included all room types and did not filter by reviews, calendar availability or estimated activity.

That choice makes the calculation reproducible. It also means “listing records” is the right description. These are not all necessarily available to book now.

The population sources use different national statistical systems, including census estimates and registration counts. Their dates and definitions limit how precisely we should compare close results.

The city files were checked against their neighbourhood coverage to avoid deliberately pairing central-city listings with metropolitan populations. Administrative geography can still change, and future updates should recheck those boundaries rather than simply replace the numbers in the table.

Why this is not a housing-loss or profitability ranking

One listing is not necessarily one dwelling. A property can advertise rooms separately, and an entire-home listing does not tell us how often that home is let or whether it is somebody's main residence.

The denominator is people, not the housing stock. A result of 36.9 listings per 1,000 residents is therefore not the percentage of homes used as holiday rentals.

Nor does the table measure booked nights, visitor numbers, legal status, rent changes or host profit. Those questions require additional evidence and, in some cases, a different method entirely.

For the wider-country perspective, our article on which countries have the most Airbnb listings explores the same distinction between total scale and population context.

What hosts can usefully take from the numbers

Use city-level data to orient your research, then move closer to the property. Look at comparable accommodation, the immediate area, current local requirements and the actual guest experience you can provide.

In buildings with several residents and visitors, clear practical information matters: the correct entrance, where bags can be left, quiet hours, bins and whom to contact if something goes wrong. A city average will not stop a guest ringing the neighbour's bell.

letbloom helps guests get property-specific answers on WhatsApp from your guidebook and house rules. See how it works if those repeated questions are taking up more of the day than the research that helps you plan the business.

Sources and image credit

Listing counts and neighbourhood calculations use the six linked June 2026 CSVs from Inside Airbnb. Population sources are linked beside each city's explanation, with reference dates in the methodology table. All ratios and shares are our calculations.

Header image: Paris and the Seine by ThePromenader, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0. The source photograph is used without editorial alteration; the site may resize it for display.