Unité urbaine
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In France an unité urbaine (literally: "urban unit") 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 [1], 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 metres, 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.
[edit] French unité urbaines with over 200,000 inhabitants
| Unité urbaine | Inhabitants (2006)[1] | Superficy 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 |
| 27 | Mulhouse | 238,637 | 215.03 | 19 |
| 26 | Dijon | 238,088 | 166.03 | 15 |
| 28 | Angers | 227,771 | 226.92 | 12 |
| 29 | Reims | 212,022 | 94.30 | 7 |
| 30 | Brest | 206,393 | 219.70 | 8 |
[edit] See also
- urban area
- aire urbaine a related concept
[edit] References
- ^ INSEE. Nomeclatures, Définitions, Méthodes. "Unité Urbaine: définition.". Retrieved December 9, 2005.
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