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Aire urbaine
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This SourceThe aire urbaine (not to be confused with English "urban area") is an INSEE (the national statistics office of France) statistical region comprising a couronne périurbaine commuter belt around a contiguous pôle urbain (urban area) urban core.
The aire urbaine is a demographical unit the result of a quite literal methodology: drawn upon France's nation-wide map of interlocking commune municipalities, the aire urbaine has for its centre a pôle urbain (similar to a unité urbaine ("urban unit") - see note below) core of communes containing an interconnecting and unbroken urban growth; this centre forms a "pole of attraction" for a couronne périurbaine ("periurban ring" or commuter belt) communes having at least 40% of their resident populations commuting with the pôle urbain, or with other communes having the same relation to the pôle urbain. The result is a precise demographic map of a) a centre of urban growth and b) its socio-economic reach into the surrounding area.
Note: There is a slight difference between a unité urbaine and a pôle urbain : the basic unité urbaine is a contiguous urban growth containing at least 5,000 jobs, and the pôle urbain is the same as a centre of demographic growth; that is to say it is an urban area that it is not contained within the couronne périurbaine (commuter belt) of any other pôle urbain.
Here is a list of the fifteen largest aires urbaines of France based on population at the 1999 census:
| Aire urbaine | Population (March 1999) | Yearly percent change (1990-1999) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01- Paris | 11,174,743 | +0.32% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 02- Lyon | 1,648,216 | +0.68% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 03- Marseille | 1,516,340 | +0.46% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 04- Lille (figures do not include the part of Lille's metropolitan area which lies on Belgian territory) 1,143,125
| +0.32%
|
05- Toulouse
| 964,797
| +1.54%
|
06- Nice
| 933,080
| +0.51%
|
07- Bordeaux
| 925,253
| +0.67%
|
08- Nantes
| 711,120
| +1.10%
| 09- Strasbourg | (figures do not include the part of Strasbourg's metropolitan area which lies on German territory, see Eurodistrict) 612,104
| +0.81%
|
10- Toulon
| 564,823
| +0.69%
|
11- Douai-Lens
| 552,682
| – 0.17%
|
12- Rennes
| 521,188
| +1.32%
|
13- Rouen
| 518,316
| +0.29%
|
14- Grenoble
| 514,559
| +0.65%
|
15- Montpellier
| 459,916
| +1.89%
| |
See also
- List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants (1999 census)
- Social situation in the French suburbs
- Demographics of France
- List of the largest urban areas of the European Union by population
- Unité urbaine a related concept
External links
- Audio book (mp3) of the introduction and first chapter of Éric Maurin's book : Le ghetto français, enquête sur le séparatisme social
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Last updated on Tuesday March 11, 2008 at 14:07:22 PDT (GMT -0700)
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