Urban unit

25 largest French urban areas

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 commune alone or a grouping of communes which: a) form a single unbroken spread of urban development, with no distance between habitations greater than 200 m and b) have altogether a population greater than 2,000 inhabitants. Communes not belonging to an unité urbaine are considered rural.

The French unité urbaine is a statistical area in accordance with United Nations recommendations for the measurement of contiguously built-up areas. Other comparable units in other countries are the United States "Urbanized Area" and the "urban area" definition shared by the United Kingdom and Canada.

French unité urbaines with over 200,000 inhabitants

Unité urbaine Inhabitants (2006)[1] Area in km²
(1999)[2]		 Communes (1999)[3]
1 Paris 10,142,983 2,723.03 396
2 Marseille-Aix-en-Provence 1,418,482 1,289.59 38
3 Lyon 1,417,461 954.19 102
4 Lille (excluding Belgian part) 1,016,205 450.26 62
5 Nice 940,018 721.08 50
6 Toulouse 850,876 808.14 72
7 Bordeaux 803,155 1,057.03 51
8 Nantes 568,743 475.62 20
9 Toulon 543,065 713.15 26
10 Douai-Lens 512,463 489.14 68
11 Strasbourg (excluding German part) 440,264 222.43 20
12 Grenoble 427,659 324.78 34
13 Rouen 388,798 267.64 31
14 Valenciennes (excluding Belgian part) 355,660 506.51 61
15 Nancy 331,278 314.24 37
16 Metz 322,948 362.50 47
17 Montpellier 318,223 154.39 11
18 Tours 306,973 420.60 23
19 Saint-Étienne 286,399 231.22 17
20 Rennes 282,550 184.83 10
21 Avignon 273,360 507.91 22
22 Orléans 269,284 289.52 19
23 Clermont-Ferrand 260,658 180.77 17
24 Béthune 259,294 389.59 60
25 Le Havre 238,777 153.17 14
26 Mulhouse 238,637 215.03 19
27 Dijon 238,088 166.03 15
28 Angers 227,771 226.92 12
29 Reims 212,022 94.30 6
30 Brest 206,393 219.70 8

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.insee.fr/
  2. ↑ http://splaf.free.fr/agglo.php
  3. ↑ http://splaf.free.fr/agglo.php
  1. ^ INSEE. Definitions and Methods. "Definition: Urban unit". Retrieved October 17, 2014.


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