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 far beyond the city limits, 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 a 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%
11- Douai-Lens	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%