Functional areas (AAV) of Metropolitan France in 2020, broken down by communes (commune borders as of January 1, 2020):
  Communes in the main population and employment centre of a functional area
  Communes in a secondary population and employment centre of a functional area
  Communes in the commuting zone of a functional area (functional areas with more than 700,000 inhabitants)
  Communes in the commuting zone of a functional area (functional areas between 200,000 and 700,000 inhabitants)
  Communes in the commuting zone of a functional area (functional areas between 50,000 and 200,000 inhabitants)
  Communes in the commuting zone of a functional area (functional areas with less than 50,000 inhabitants)
  Communes outside of functional areas

An aire d'attraction d'une ville[note 1] (or AAV, literally meaning "catchment area of a city") is a statistical area used by France's national statistics office INSEE since 2020, officially translated as functional area in English by INSEE,[2] which consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and the surrounding exurbs, towns and intervening rural areas that are socioeconomically tied to the central urban agglomeration, as measured by commuting patterns.[1] INSEE's functional area (AAV) is therefore akin to what is most often called metropolitan area in English.

Definition

INSEE's AAV follows the same definition as the Functional Urban Area (FUA) used by Eurostat and the OECD, and the AAVs are thus strictly comparable to the FUAs.[2] Before 2020, INSEE used another metropolitan statistical area, the aire urbaine (AU), which was defined differently than the AAV, but the AU has now been discontinued and replaced with the AAV in order to facilitate international comparisons with Eurostat's FUAs.[2]

The functional area is a grouping of communes comprising a 'population and employment centre' (pôle de population et d'emploi in French),[2][3] which Eurostat calls "city" or "greater city" (depending on the FUA),[4] defined according to population and employment criteria, and an outlying 'commuting zone' (couronne in French),[2][3] which Eurostats calls "commuting zone" in English,[4] like INSEE, but zone de navettage in French[5] (unlike INSEE which calls it couronne), in which at least 15% of the working population work in the population and employment centre.[2]

List of functional areas (AAV)

The following is a list of the thirty five largest functional areas (AAV) in France, based on their population at the 2020 census. Population at the 2008 and 1990 censuses is indicated for comparison.

Rank
(2020) 		Rank
(2008) 		Rank
(1990) 		Functional area
(AAV) 		Population
(2020)[6] 		Population
(2008)[7] 		Population
(1990)[8] 		Yearly change
(2008-2020) 		Yearly change
(1990-2008) 		Land area
(km²)[9] 		Number of
communes[10]
1 1 1  Paris 13,125,142  12,479,272  11,392,740  +0.42% +0.51% 18,941 1,929
2 2 2  Lyon 2,293,180  2,050,795  1,790,325  +0.94% +0.77% 4,606 398
3 3 3  Marseille - Aix-en-Provence 1,879,601  1,800,122  1,594,849  +0.36% +0.68% 3,972 115
4 4 4  Lille (French part) 1,515,061  1,448,868  1,390,191  +0.37% +0.23% 1,666 201
5 5 6  Toulouse 1,470,899  1,252,358  935,009  +1.35% +1.65% 6,520 527
6 6 5  Bordeaux 1,376,375  1,171,456  986,179  +1.35% +0.97% 6,316 275
7 7 7  Nantes 1,022,775  873,569  722,234  +1.32% +1.07% 3,471 116
8 8 8  Strasbourg (French part) 860,744  805,611  704,238  +0.55% +0.76% 2,227 268
9 10 13  Montpellier 813,272  680,929  501,936  +1.49% +1.73% 2,414 161
10 12 12  Rennes 763,749  659,941  521,255  +1.22% +1.33% 3,804 183
11 9 10  Grenoble 720,081  689,042  614,455  +0.37% +0.65% 2,876 204
12 11 9  Rouen 708,289  680,844  646,549  +0.33% +0.29% 2,792 317
13 13 11  Nice[note 2] 618,489  606,605  558,520  +0.16% +0.46% 2,073 100
14 14 16  Toulon 576,648  542,008  481,466  +0.52% +0.67% 1,004 35
15 16 17  Tours 522,317  492,968  437,547  +0.48% +0.67% 3,632 162
16 15 14  Nancy 508,947  510,668  496,486  -0.03% +0.16% 3,121 353
17 18 18  Clermont-Ferrand 507,954  471,581  432,862  +0.62% +0.48% 2,845 209
18 17 15  Saint-Étienne 500,851  483,053  491,789  +0.30% -0.10% 1,636 105
19 19 19  Caen 475,144  446,464  399,635  +0.52% +0.62% 2,597 296
20 20 20  Orléans 454,208  424,419  374,252  +0.57% +0.71% 3,422 136
21 30 41  Geneva - Annemasse (French part)[note 3] 439,300  347,977  258,475  +1.96% +1.68% 1,737 158
22 22 23  Angers 437,560  403,371  355,626  +0.68% +0.71% 2,419 81
23 26 34  Perpignan 418,104  375,133  301,619  +0.91% +1.23% 1,775 118
24 23 22  Dijon 413,996  394,820  365,025  +0.40% +0.44% 3,896 333
25 21 21  Mulhouse 410,008  404,298  370,251  +0.12% +0.49% 1,227 132
26 24 30  Cannes - Antibes 393,232  391,654  332,735  +0.03% +0.92% 432 24
27 27 26  Metz 373,821  363,595  338,432  +0.23% +0.40% 1,877 245
28 28 27  Brest 373,808  357,835  335,795  +0.36% +0.36% 1,265 68
29 29 33  Le Mans 369,976  356,861  326,702  +0.30% +0.50% 2,340 144
30 32 32  Reims 355,617  343,808  329,208  +0.28% +0.24% 3,251 294
31 31 31  Amiens 354,217  346,294  329,927  +0.19% +0.27% 3,076 369
32 25 25  Fort-de-France 347,170  380,831  340,815  -0.77% +0.62% 974 28
33 39 40  Nîmes 347,033  315,480  259,675  +0.80% +1.10% 1,468 92
34 34 28  Valenciennes (French part) 337,293  334,996  335,758  +0.06% -0.01% 725 102
35 38 38  Avignon 337,039  317,744  272,025  +0.49% +0.88% 964 48

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Plural: aires d'attraction des villes.[1]
  2. ^ Does not include Cannes-Antibes, which is a considered by INSEE a separate AAV, contrary to the old aire urbaine of Nice which included Cannes and Antibes.
  3. ^ French part of the Geneva Functional Urban Area (2,292 km2 (885 sq mi))[11] which extends over Swiss and French territory, and had a population of 1,044,766 in Jan. 2020 (Swiss estimates and French census), 605,466 of them on Swiss territory and 439,300 on French territory.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b "Le nouveau zonage en aires d'attraction des villes". INSEE. Retrieved 2022-04-26.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Functional areas - Definition". INSEE. Retrieved 2022-04-26.
  3. ^ a b "Aire d'attraction des villes - Définition". INSEE. Retrieved 2022-04-26.
  4. ^ a b "What is a city? - Spatial units". Eurostat. Retrieved 2022-04-26.
  5. ^ "Qu'est-ce qu'une ville? — Unités spatiales". Eurostat. Retrieved 2022-04-26.
  6. ^ INSEE. "France par aire d'attraction des villes - Population municipale 2020 >> Tableau". Retrieved 2023-03-09.
  7. ^ INSEE. "France par aire d'attraction des villes - Population municipale (historique depuis 1876) 2008 >> Tableau". Retrieved 2022-04-27.
  8. ^ INSEE. "France par aire d'attraction des villes - Population municipale 1990 >> Tableau". Retrieved 2022-04-27.
  9. ^ INSEE. "Comparateur de territoire". Retrieved 2022-04-27.
  10. ^ INSEE. "Base des aires d'attraction des villes 2020 au 1ᵉʳ janvier 2022". Retrieved 2022-04-29.
  11. ^ As of 2020, the Eurostat-defined Functional Urban Area of Geneva was made up of 93 Swiss communes and 158 French communes: Federal Statistical Office spreadsheet listing the Swiss and French communes of the Geneva Functional Urban Area.
    Land area of the 93 Swiss communes: 555.1 km² (source: [1]).
    Land area of the 158 French communes: 1737.1 km² (source: [2]).
  12. ^ As of 2020, the Eurostat-defined Functional Urban Area of Geneva was made up of 93 Swiss communes and 158 French communes: Federal Statistical Office spreadsheet listing the Swiss and French communes of the Geneva Functional Urban Area.
    Population of the 93 Swiss communes in January 2019: 605,466 (source: [3]).
    Population of the 158 French communes in January 2019: 439,300 (source: [4]).
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