North Rhine-Westphalia usually shortened to NRW, official short form NW) is the westernmost, most populous, and most economically powerful state of Germany. North Rhine-Westphalia has over 18 million inhabitants, contributes about 22% of Germany's gross domestic product and comprises a land area of 34,083 km² (13,158 square miles). North Rhine-Westphalia is situated in the western part of Germany and shares borders with Belgium in the southwest and the Netherlands in the west and northwest. It has borders with the German states of Lower Saxony to the north and northeast, Rhineland-Palatinate to the south and Hesse to the southeast.

The capital city is Düsseldorf, and the largest city is Cologne (Köln). Other major cities are Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg, Oberhausen, Aachen, Bielefeld, Bonn, Bochum, Bottrop, Bergisch Gladbach, Mönchengladbach, Mülheim, Münster, Gelsenkirchen, Krefeld, Hagen, Hamm, Herne, Iserlohn, Leverkusen, Neuss, Paderborn, Recklinghausen, Remscheid, Siegen, Solingen, Witten and Wuppertal.

Once, the Ruhrgebiet was affected by coal mining and coal and steel industry, but from the 1960s on, a structural change took place. Even after the fall of these industries, the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region is affected by important basic industries and is one of the German economic centers. In absolute figures, North Rhine-Westphalia remains the most powerful state, economically.