Aire urbaine
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The 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.
Although it can be roughly compared to the North American "Metropolitan Area" in concept, it is quite different in calculation: whereas the former is generally an extension of the limit of urban area growth to the borders of the county containing it, the aire urbaine is a 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 (or "urban area") - see note below) core of communes containing an interconnecting and unbroken urban growth; this centre forms a "pole of attraction" for a couronne périurbaine (commuter belt) ring of 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 an 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 %
|
| 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 %
|
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