Urban unit

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25 largest French urban areas in 2010

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 [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 m and b) have all together 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 (2015)[1] Area in km²
(2010)[2] 		Communes (2010)[3]
1 Paris 10,706,072 2,844.8 409
2 Lyon 1,639,558 1,180.4 127
3 Marseille-Aix-en-Provence 1,585,498 1,731.9 49
4 Lille (excluding Belgian part) 1,039,397 442.5 59
5 Toulouse 948,433 811.6 73
6 Nice 943,354 743.6 51
7 Bordeaux 904,359 1,172.6 64
8 Nantes 633,690 537.7 24
9 Toulon 569,793 763.7 27
10 Grenoble 512,591 523.1 53
11 Douai-Lens 504,537 485.2 67
12 Rouen 467,133 461.1 50
13 Strasbourg (excluding German part) 461,101 240.2 23
14 Avignon 456,042 1,368.9 59
15 Montpellier 428,909 310.0 22
16 Saint-Étienne 373,130 418.7 33
17 Béthune 355,543 752.4 93
18 Tours 353,042 663.7 36
19 Valenciennes (excluding Belgian part) 335,992 440.0 56
20 Rennes 330,871 284.4 10
21 Nancy 285,659 245.9 28
22 Metz 285,268 306.9 41
23 Orléans 278,131 289.5 19
24 Clermont-Ferrand 265,892 180.8 17
25 Pointe-à-Pitre-Les Abymes 256,263 729.7 11
26 Mulhouse 246,511 239.1 20
27 Dijon 243,244 166.0 15
28 Le Havre 237,578 194.9 18
29 Bayonne (excluding Spanish part) 236,730 459.2 27
30 Angers 225,978 201.4 10
31 Reims 212,949 94.30 7
32 Le Mans 210,018 294.3 18
33 Perpignan 200,971 217.5 15
34 Brest 200,530 199.4 7

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Comparateur de territoire" [Urban units]. Insee (in French). Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  2. ^ "Comparateur de territoire" [Urban units]. Insee (in French). Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  3. ^ "Base des unités urbaines" [Urban units]. Insee (in French). Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  1. ^ INSEE. Definitions and Methods. "Definition: Urban unit". Retrieved October 17, 2014.


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