Map of urban areas of France, with communes and departments

An ''aire urbaine'' (literal and official translation: "urban area") is an INSEE (France's national statistics bureau) statistical concept describing a core of urban development and the extent of its commuter activity. It was replaced by the concept " functional area" (french: aire d'attraction des villes), which uses the same definition as

Eurostat Eurostat ('European Statistical Office'; DG ESTAT) is a Directorate-General of the European Commission located in the Kirchberg, Luxembourg, Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide stati ...

's functional urban areas, in 2020.

Definition

The ''aire urbaine'' is built from France's nationwide interlocking administrative ''

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

'' municipalities: when a ''commune'' has over 2000 inhabitants and contains a centre of dense construction (buildings spaced no more than 200 metres apart), it is combined with other adjoining communes fulfilling the same criteria to become a single ''

unité urbaine In France, an urban unit (''fr: "unité urbaine"'') is a statistical area defined by INSEE, the French national statistics office, for the measurement of contiguously built-up areas. According to the INSEE definition , an "unité urbaine" is a ...

'' ("urban unit"); if an urban unit offers over 10,000 jobs and its economical development is enough to draw more than 40% of the population of a nearby municipalities (and other municipalities drawn to these in the same way) as commuters, it becomes a ''pôle urbain'' ("urban cluster") and the "commuter municipalities" become its '' couronne'' ("rim"), but this only on the condition that the urban unit itself is not part of another urban cluster's rim. The ''aire urbaine'' is an urban cluster and its rim combined, or a statistical area describing a central urban core and its economic influence on surrounding municipalities.

Types of ''aires urbaines''

As of 2010, depending on their population and function, ''aires urbaines'' adopt the following secondary appellations: * ''aires urbaines'' with more than 500,000 inhabitants and 20,000 official 'metropolitan-type jobs' are considered ''aires métropolitaines'' ('metropolitan areas') * ''aires urbaines'' with more than 200,000 inhabitants are considered ''grandes aires'' ('large urban areas') * ''aires urbaines'' centred around a 'pole'

urban unit In France, an urban unit (''fr: "unité urbaine"'') is a statistical area defined by INSEE, the French national statistics office, for the measurement of contiguously built-up areas. According to the INSEE definition , an "unité urbaine" is a ...

with 5,000 to 10,000 jobs (with at least 40% of the surrounding commune populations working there) are 'moyennes aires' ('medium urban areas'). * ''aires urbaines'' centred around a 'pole'

with 1,500 to 5,000 jobs (with at least 40% of the surrounding commune populations working there) are 'petites aires' ('small urban areas').

History

In France, multiple words exist to define various kinds of urban area. One of the first words used was the word ''agglomération'', which was first used to deal with a group of people. The word was used, for instance, in a law from 5 April 1884 (''loi du 5 avril 1884''), in which Article 98 gives the mayor police power (''pouvoirs de police''), meaning authority over the city, but only within the ''agglomération''. That law was used as a legal precedent in 1907 to forbid a mayor from setting a speed limit on the road next to a farm, considering that at that time, a group of houses inside a farm might be an ''agglomération'', but the road next to it was not inside the ''agglomération''. Later, in the 1920s, the concept of ''agglomération'' was used in the ''code de la route'' (Highway code) to define specific law within or outside of such a zone. In 1968, the French word ''agglomération'' was introduced in the French version of the

Vienna Convention on Road Traffic The Convention on Road Traffic, commonly known as the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, is an international treaty designed to facilitate international road traffic and to increase road safety by establishing standard traffic rules among the co ...

in the place where the English word ''built-up area'' was used in the English version of the same treaty. In this treaty, the word is only defined as a concept signalled by an entry sign and an exit sign, while still allowing members of the treaty to have different definitions. Nowadays, words with an English origin or meaning tend to be introduced into the French language as loanwords, in order to describe new concepts, words or meanings, or to replace old words. Such words include: ''aire urbaine'' (urban area); ''métropole'' (metropolis); ''agglomération'' (agglomeration); ''communauté urbaine'' (urban community); ''Grand'' + the name of a city (

Grand Paris The Métropole du Grand Paris (; "Metropolis of Greater Paris"),There is no official or widely-used English translation yet. also known as Grand Paris or Greater Paris, is a ''métropole'' covering the City of Paris and its nearest surrounding su ...

, Grand Toulouse). As a member of the European Union and the OECD, for statistical purposes, France may need to consider the regions inside or outside of the limits of an urban area.

List of France's ''aires urbaines'' (metropolitan areas)

The following is a list of the twenty largest ''aires urbaines'' (metropolitan areas) in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, based on their population at the 2016 census. Population at the 2011 and 2006 census is indicated for comparison. In both time intervals presented in the table below (2006 to 2011 and 2011 to 2016), the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in France were Bordeaux, Montpellier, Toulouse, Nantes, Rennes and Lyon with an average annual growth rate equal or greater than 1%.

References

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External links

Geopolis
research group, university of Paris-Diderot, France - Population of urban areas of 10,000 or more Populated places in France Demographics of France