Loire
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| Loire | |
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| Coat of arms of the Loire department | |
| Location | |
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| Administration | |
| Department number: | 42 |
| Region: | Rhône-Alpes |
| Prefecture: | Saint-Étienne |
| Subprefectures: | Montbrison Roanne |
| Arrondissements: | 3 |
| Cantons: | 40 |
| Communes: | 327 |
| President of the General Council: | Pascal Clément |
| Statistics | |
| Population | Ranked 27th |
| -1999 | 728,524 |
| Population density: | 152/km² |
| Land area¹: | 4781 km² |
| ¹ French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km². | |
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This article is about the French department. For the river, see Loire River. For the valley, see Loire Valley.
Loire is an administrative department in the east-central part of France occupying the River Loire's upper reaches.
Contents |
[edit] History
Loire was created in 1793 when the original department of Rhône-et-Loire was split.
Its capitals have been the following:
- Feurs from 1793-1795
- Montbrison from 1795-1855
- Saint-Étienne since 1855
[edit] Geography
Loire is part of the current administrative region of Rhône-Alpes and is surrounded by the departments of Rhône, Isère, Ardèche, Haute-Loire, Puy-de-Dôme, Allier, and Saône-et-Loire.
The River Loire traverses the department from south to north.
The Loire department is split into three arrondissements:
[edit] Demographics
The inhabitants of the department are called Ligériens.
The industrial city of Saint-Étienne with its suburbs contains some 290,000 of the area's 728,542 inhabitants.
[edit] External links
- (French) Prefecture website
- (French) General Council website
- (French) loire tourisme website
- (English) Loire on france-for-visitors.com
- (English) Information on the Loire
- Photos of Loire Châteaux
Ain • Aisne • Allier • Alpes-de-Haute-Provence • Hautes-Alpes • Alpes-Maritimes • Ardèche • Ardennes • Ariège • Aube • Aude • Aveyron • Bouches-du-Rhône • Calvados • Cantal • Charente • Charente-Maritime • Cher • Corrèze • Corse-du-Sud • Haute-Corse • Côte-d'Or • Côtes-d'Armor • Creuse • Dordogne • Doubs • Drôme • Eure • Eure-et-Loir • Finistère • Gard • Haute-Garonne • Gers • Gironde • Hérault • Ille-et-Vilaine • Indre • Indre-et-Loire • Isère • Jura • Landes • Loir-et-Cher • Loire • Haute-Loire • Loire-Atlantique • Loiret • Lot • Lot-et-Garonne • Lozère • Maine-et-Loire • Manche • Marne • Haute-Marne • Mayenne • Meurthe-et-Moselle • Meuse • Morbihan • Moselle • Nièvre • Nord • Oise • Orne • Pas-de-Calais • Puy-de-Dôme • Pyrénées-Atlantiques • Hautes-Pyrénées • Pyrénées-Orientales • Bas-Rhin • Haut-Rhin • Rhône • Haute-Saône • Saône-et-Loire • Sarthe • Savoie • Haute-Savoie • Paris • Seine-Maritime • Seine-et-Marne • Yvelines • Deux-Sèvres • Somme • Tarn • Tarn-et-Garonne • Var • Vaucluse • Vendée • Vienne • Haute-Vienne • Vosges • Yonne • Territoire de Belfort • Essonne • Hauts-de-Seine • Seine-Saint-Denis • Val-de-Marne • Val-d'Oise • Overseas departments and territories: Guadeloupe • Martinique • French Guiana • Réunion
