Stuttgart (; , Swabian: Schduagert, ) is the capital and largest city of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,068 (October 2014) while the greater Stuttgart Metropolitan Region has a population of 5.3 million (2008), being the fourth-biggest in Germany after the Rhine-Ruhr area, Berlin/Brandenburg and Frankfurt/Rhine-Main. The city lies at the centre of a densely populated area, surrounded by a ring of smaller towns. This area called Stuttgart Region has a population of 2.7 million.