By attaching 7 towns and 16 villages to the former Budapest, its area enlarged from 207 km2 to 525 km2 (154%), the number of its inhabitants increased from 1.05 million to 1.6 million (52%), and the number of the districts augmented from 14 to 22 (57%), thus becoming the seventh metropolis of Europe in its time.
The only difference between the 1950s Greater Budapest and today's[update] Budapest is that Soroksár, a part of District 20, voted for its independence in 1992, and in 1994 it became a separate District 23.
In the 1960s neighbouring villages became the new suburbs (second suburban belt) with rapidly increasing population (from 1950 to 2009 these former villages and small towns population increased from 300,000 to nearly 800,000).
Suburbanization and motorization generated traffic jams on urban multi-lane highways.
Andás Sipos: Formation of Greater Budapest (Hungarian)