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In France an aire urbaine (literally: "urban area") is roughly the equivalent of a US Metropolitan Statistical Area. The name is extremely confusing for English speakers because in English an "urban area" is not the same thing as a "metropolitan area". In English an urban area is a contiguously built-up area, which is smaller than a metropolitan area, as explained below. Despite its name, a French aire urbaine is indeed a metropolitan area. What is called "urban area" in English is called unité urbaine (literally: "urban unit") in France. In the United States, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has produced a formal definition of metropolitan areas, which are organized around county boundaries. ...
An aire urbaine comprises a city, its independent suburbs, as well as its satellite towns and cities separated by some agricultural land. Metropolitan areas in the US also include satellite towns and the agricultural land in between. This reflects the modern phenomenon of long commutes where people may live in towns separated from the core of the urbanized metropolis by some agricultural land, but still work in the core of the metropolis. In that perspective, a metropolitan area is no more conceived as strictly speaking the urbanized area centered on a city, but rather as a hub of towns and suburbs around a central urban core where people interact and commute.
The official definition of an aire urbaine is given by the INSEE (the national statistics office of France) as: an agglomeration of communes (municipalities) situated on an unbroken and enclave-free tract of land, made up of (1) an urban core (pôle urbain), i.e. the communes of the contiguously urbanized area around the city center; and (2) the communes in the suburban ring (outside of the urban core) in which at least 40% of the resident population in employment works in the communes of the urban core or in the other communes of the peri-urban ring. A pôle urbain is a unité urbaine (see first paragraph) in which there exists at least 5,000 jobs and which does not belong to the peri-urban ring of another pôle urbain. INSEE is the French abbreviation for the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (French: Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques). ...
The commune is an administrative division of France. ...
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 Jump to: navigation, search The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ...
| 11,174,743 | +0.32 % | | 02- Lyon City motto: Avant, avant, Lion le melhor. ...
| 1,648,216 | +0.68 % | | 03- Marseille City motto: Actibus immensis urbs fulget Massiliensis. ...
| 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 Jump to: navigation, search City motto: – City proper (commune) Région Nord-Pas de Calais Département Nord (59) Mayor Martine Aubry (PS) (since 2001) Area 39. ...
The Capitole, the 18th century city hall of Toulouse and best known landmark in the city; in the foreground is the Place du Capitole, a hub of urban life at the very center of the city Toulouse (pronounced in standard French, in local Toulouse accent) (Occitan: Tolosa, pronounced ) is a...
| 964,797 | +1.54 % | | 06- Nice Jump to: navigation, search City motto: Nicæa civitas. ...
| 933,080 | +0.51 % | | 07- Bordeaux Jump to: navigation, search For the wine, see Bordeaux Wine City motto: Lilia sola regunt lunam undas castra leonem. ...
| 925,253 | +0.67 % | | 08- Nantes Jump to: navigation, search City motto: Favet Neptunus eunti. ...
| 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 City motto: – City proper (commune) Région Alsace Département Bas-Rhin (67) Mayor Fabienne Keller (UMP) (since 2001) Area 78. ...
The French and German governments are currently discussing the creation of a commonly administered region incorporating Greater Strasbourg/Straßburg (a formerly German city) and the Ortenau district of Baden-Württemberg. ...
Location within France Coat of Arms of Toulon Toulon (Tolon in Provençal) is a city in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. ...
| 564,823 | +0.69 % | | 11- Douai-Lens Douai is a city and commune in the north of France in the département of Nord, of which it is a sous-préfecture. ...
A lens is: a part of the eye an optical device that may be used in a camera or in a telescope; see lens (optics). ...
| 552,682 | – 0.17 % | | 12- Rennes Location within France The Parlement de Bretagne (Parliament of Brittany), the most famous building in Rennes, was rebuilt after a terrible fire in 1994. ...
| 521,188 | +1.32 % | | 13- Rouen Location within France Rouen (pronounced in French, sometimes also ) is the historical capital city of Normandy, in northern France, and presently the capital of the Upper Normandy région. ...
| 518,316 | +0.29 % | | 14- Grenoble Jump to: navigation, search View of Grenoble, 2002, with the snowy peaks of the Dauphiné Alps Location within France Grenoble (Occitan: Grasanòbol) is a city and commune in south-east France, situated at the foot of the Alps, at the confluence of the Drac into the Isère River. ...
| 514,559 | +0.65 % | | 15- Montpellier Jump to: navigation, search Location within France Montpellier (Occitan Montpelhièr) is a city in the south of France. ...
| 459,916 | +1.89 % |
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