Ullelfrborg

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Ullelfrborg
CountryTemplate:Country data Ultima Borealia
Government
 • Lord-MayorIris Androkae (Communist)
Area
 • Total482.47 km2 (186.284 sq mi)
Population
 (2021)
 • Total13,824,351
 • Density29,000/km2 (74,000/sq mi)
Ethnicity
 • Omenian46.1%
 • Foreign/other32.3%
 • Borealian13.1%
 • Mixed8.5%

Ullelfrborg is the capital and largest city in Ultima Borealia. Located at the confluence of the [X] River and the [X] Bay, Ullelfrborg is Ultima Borealia's southernmost major city and its sole warm-water port. Over 13 million people live in Ullelfrborg as of 2021; additionally, approximately an additional 10 million people live in the nearby [X] Valley, a region that has become highly urbanized and intimately connected with Ullelfrborg, in some areas becoming nearly as densely populated as Ullelfrborg itself. Ullelfrborg is the overwhelming primate city of Ultima Borealia; its residents comprise over two-fifths of its population, and Ultima Borealia's major government institutions and nearly all major Borealian corporations are headquarted in the city.

Ullelfrborg has been settled since antiquity, and was first incorporated as a free commune as the Republic of Ullelfrborg in 1107 CE, emerging as a prominent Borealian city, and by far its largest port, during the Middle Ages. During the Early Modern period, Ullelfrborg became a wealthy thalassocratic maritime republic on account of its involvement with the lucrative spice trade of Omena Nosy that a coalition of Borealian colonists and states, most prominently Ullelfrborg, controlled. Substantial numbers of Omenians first emigrated to Ullelfrborg during the 16th and 17th centuries, becoming a majority of the population by 1750. After the unification of Ultima Borealia in the mid-19th century, the city grew extremely rapidly for the next hundred years, on account of Ultima Borealia's rapid industrialization and further immigration from Omena Nosy. By 1930, the city had become Ultima Borealia's unambiguous primate city, and recent Omenian immigrants, mostly impoverished and excluded from the franchise, dominated Ullelfrborg's working-class. These Omenian immigrants, and their mainland relatives, organized into the communist parties of Ultima Borealia and Omena Nosy respectively and led the mass strikes and demonstrations termed the Borealian and Omenian Revolutions. These traditions of Omenian culture and radical political organizing continue. The Communist Party has continuously governed the city since the 1930s, and over four-fifths of Ullelfrborg's residents live in public housing built or expropriated by successive Communist governments. Over two-thirds of Ultima Borealia's ethnic Omenian population live in Ullelfrborg, and Omenians remain the largest ethnic group in Ullelfrborg, and the city is as a center of Omenian culture and traidionts comparable to Omena Nosy itself.

After prospering and continuing to grow thanks to high birthrates and continued Omenian immigration from 1940 to 1970, Ullelfrborg witnessed substantial urban decay and population decline in the 1970s and 1980s. Many Ullelfrborg residents emigrated to the [X] Valley and Omena Nosy, because high-speed rail connections made commuting from the [X] Valley to Ullelfrborg increasingly viable, economic conditions in Omena Nosy had dramatically improved, and Ullelfrborg experienced substantial political violence during the Years of Lead and Broken Glass, which Ullelfrborg was the epicenter of. Since the late 1980s, however, Ullelfrborg has experienced substantial urban regeneration and far surpassed its previous population peak, owing to sharply declining violence, industrial redevelopment in Lower Ullelfrborg, a boom in tourism and the quarternary sector, and very high rates of immigration from other foreign countries than Omena Nosy. Nearly two-fifths of Ullelfrborg's residents are now foreign-born, most from countries other than Omena Nosy, and the city boasts of its substantial ethnic and cultural diversity.

An alpha world city, Ullelfrborg today has one of the largest urban economies in the world, and is a major center of tourism thanks to its historic architecture, natural beauty, and vibrant arts, culture, and nightlife. At 29,000/km2, it is also one of the world's densest cities. This density is most famously expressed through extremely dense high-rise districts such as Midtown Ullelfrborg, but the city's architecture is diverse, achieving density through diverse building typologies such as nineteenth-century tenements and Brownstones, sprawling twentieth-century residential parks, and modern high-rise podium towers.

In addition to its strong tourism sector, in the modern era Ullelfrborg also boasts a vibrant high-tech sector; it is a world center, in particular of biotechnology, medical research, information technology, and semiconductor manufacturing; the Port of Ullelfrborgand heavy industry also continue to loom large in Ullelfrborg's economy. The Ullelfrborg Metro is a tourist destination in its own right, and one of the largest and busiest rapid transit systems in the world.