Seine is a former department of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, which encompassed

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and its immediate suburbs. It was the only enclaved department of

, being surrounded entirely by the former Seine-et-Oise department. Its

prefecture A prefecture (from the Latin word, "''praefectura"'') is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be a regional or local government subdivision in various countries, or a subdivision in certain inter ...

was Paris and its INSEE number was 75. The Seine department was disbanded in 1968 and its territory divided among four new departments:

Hauts-de-Seine Hauts-de-Seine (; ) is a department in the Île-de-France region of France. It covers Paris's western inner suburbs. It is bordered by Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne to the east, Val-d'Oise to the north, Yvelines to the west and ...

, Seine-Saint-Denis and

Val-de-Marne Val-de-Marne (, "Vale of the Marne") is a department of France located in the Île-de-France region. Named after the river Marne, it is situated in the Grand Paris metropolis to the southeast of the City of Paris. In 2019, Val-de-Marne had a ...

."En 1964 naissaient les nouveaux départements de la petite couronne"
'' La Dépêche'', 10 July 2014.

General characteristics

From 1929 to its abolition in 1968, the department consisted of the City of Paris and 80 surrounding suburban communes. It had an area of 480 km² (185 sq. miles), 22% of that area being the City of Paris and 78% being suburbs. It was the only enclaved department in France. It was divided into three arrondissements:

, Sceaux and Saint-Denis. For most of the Seine department's existence, its

prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect' ...

also exercised direct authority over the City of Paris as well. For all but 14 months after 1794, Paris was the only commune without a

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

; it had theoretically less autonomy than the smallest village.

History

Formation

Seine was created on 4 March 1790, as the department of Paris (). In 1795, it was renamed as the department of Seine () after the Seine River flowing through it. At the first census of the

French Republic France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

in 1801, the Seine department had 631,585 inhabitants (87% of them living in the City of Paris, 13% in the suburbs) and was the second most populous department of the vast Napoleonic Empire (behind ), more populous than even the dense departments of what is now

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

and the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. With the growth of Paris and its suburbs over the next 150 years, the population of the Seine department increased tremendously.

Dissolution

By 1968 it contained 5,700,754 residents (45% of them living in the City of Paris, 55% in the suburbs), making it by far the most populous department of France. It was considered that the Seine department was now too large to be governed effectively. On 1 January 1968, it was split into four smaller departments:

, Seine-Saint-Denis and

. The latter three also include parts of the former Seine-et-Oise department, which was also abolished at the same time. The breakup of the Seine department involved the following changes: * The city (commune) of Paris was turned into a department in its own right, with no other communes inside this department. The official number 75 which was used for the Seine department was given to the new Paris department. * To the south and southeast of the city, 29 communes of the Seine department were grouped with 18 communes of the Seine-et-Oise department to form the new Val-de-Marne department. The official number 94 was assigned to this department, a number previously used for the Territoires du Sud territory in the

Sahara The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

n part of

French Algeria French Algeria ( until 1839, then afterwards; unofficially ; ), also known as Colonial Algeria, was the period of History of Algeria, Algerian history when the country was a colony and later an integral part of France. French rule lasted until ...

. * To the west of Paris, 27 communes of the Seine department were grouped with nine communes of Seine-et-Oise to form the new Hauts-de-Seine department. The official number 92 was assigned to this department, a number previously used for the department of

Oran Oran () is a major coastal city located in the northwest of Algeria. It is considered the second most important city of Algeria, after the capital, Algiers, because of its population and commercial, industrial and cultural importance. It is w ...

in French Algeria. * Finally, to the north and northeast the 24 remaining communes of the Seine department were grouped with 16 communes of the Seine-et-Oise department to form the new Seine-Saint-Denis department. The official number 93 was assigned to this department, a number previously used for the department of Constantine in French Algeria. Taken together, Hauts-de-Seine, Val-de-Marne and Seine-Saint-Denis are known in France as the ' (meaning "small ring"), as opposed to the ' ("large ring") of the more distant suburbs. The ' plus the City of Paris total , more than the former Seine department (). The ''

Métropole du Grand Paris A (; French for "metropolis") is an administrative entity in France, in which several communes in France, communes cooperate, and which has the right to Taxation in France, levy local tax, an ''établissement public de coopération intercommunal ...

'', an administrative structure created in 2016, comprises Paris and the three departments of the ', plus seven additional communes in the '.

Demographics

At the 2006 census, the population of the communes that had previously comprised the Seine department was 5,496,468. The population of the department peaked in 1968 at 5,700,754. It then lost inhabitants until 1999 (with a nadir of 5,203,818 inhabitants at the 1999 census) as residents increasingly relocated to the more distant suburbs of the metropolitan area of Paris, but since 1999 it has regained some inhabitants, with a population increase of 292,650 inhabitants between 1999 and 2006. This new population growth after a long period of decline is comparable to what is observed in the central areas of other large Western metropolises such as

Inner London Inner London is the group of London boroughs that form the interior part of Greater London and are surrounded by Outer London. With its origins in the bills of mortality, it became fixed as an area for statistics in 1847 and was used as an area ...

. Of the new departments created in 1968, Paris was the most populous in 2006 with 2,181,371 inhabitants. The Paris department is currently the second-most populous of France behind that of Nord.

References