The ESPON Cardiff–South Wales Valleys metropolitan area was a metropolitan area used by the European Spatial Planning Observation Network (ESPON) of the European Union. The area included parts of south-east Wales, specifically covering the morphological urban areas of the cities of Cardiff and Newport, and of the towns of Merthyr Tydfil, Pontypridd, Caerphilly, Bridgend and Ebbw Vale, in the South Wales Valleys.
It covers the preserved counties of Gwent and South Glamorgan. In a 2007 report, ESPON stated it had a population of 1.097 million, making it the largest and only ESPON metropolitan area in Wales, with the next largest being centred on the city of Swansea and its urban area.
The ESPON defined the "Cardiff and South Wales valleys metropolitan area" by 2007, to cover the following three types of subdivision:
The previous Cardiff (272,000) and Newport (116,000) areas classed under ESPON 1.1.1
The corresponding morphological urban areas of Cardiff, Newport, Merthyr Tydfil, Pontypridd, Caerphilly, Bridgend, and Ebbw Vale.
The metropolitan area includes areas within the then NUTS 3 statistical regions of Central Valleys (Merthyr Tydfil, Rhondda Cynon Taf), Gwent Valleys (Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Torfaen), Bridgend–Neath Port Talbot, Monmouthshire–Newport, and Cardiff–Vale of Glamorgan.