Pays de la Loire

Pays de la Loire
Region of France

Flag

Logo
Country  France
Prefecture Nantes
Departments
Government
  President Jacques Auxiette (PS)
Area
  Total 32,082 km2 (12,387 sq mi)
Population
  Total 3,553,353
  Density 110/km2 (290/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
  Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code FR-R
GDP (2012)[1] Ranked 5th
Total €101.2 billion (US$130.2 bn)
Per capita €27,775 (US$35,725)
NUTS Region FR5
Website paysdelaloire.fr

Pays de la Loire (French pronunciation: [pe.i də la lwaʁ]; Breton: Broioù al Liger) is one of the 18 regions of France. It is one of the regions created in the 1950s to serve as a zone of influence for its capital, Nantes, one of a handful so-called "balancing metropolises" (métropoles d'équilibre)¹.

Geography

Pays de la Loire is made up of the following historical provinces:

A vine in Brem, Pays de la Loire

Thus the name of the region, chosen by the French central government, was not based on history, but purely on geographical references: Pays ("lands") de la Loire ("of the Loire"). The majority of the châteaux of the Loire Valley are located in the Centre-Val de Loire region, and not in Pays de la Loire.

The Pays de la Loire has numerous prominent monuments, such as the castles of Angers, Laval, and Mayenne, and the Nantes Château des Ducs de Bretagne, the Royal Fontevraud Abbey (the widest monastic ensemble in Europe), and the old city of Le Mans. In addition, it also has many natural parks such as the Brière and the Marsh of Poitou.

Demography

Evolution of the population listed by departments:

Year Population of the departments
Loire-Atlantique department Maine-et-Loire department Mayenne department Sarthe department Vendée department Total Pays de la Loire
1801 369,305 375,544 305,654 388,143 243,426 1,682,072
1851 535,664 516,197 374,566 473,071 383,734 2,283,232
1901 664,971 515,431 313,103 422,699 441,311 2,357,515
1921 649,691 475,485 397,292 2,174,150
1936 659,428 478,404 251,348 388,519 389,211 2,166,910
1946 665,064 393,787 2,224,163
1954 733,575 395,641 2,320,177
1962 803,372 535,122 250,030 443,019 408,928 2,440,471
1968 861,452 585,563 252,762 461,839 421,250 2,582,866
1975 934,499 629,849 261,789 490,385 450,641 2,767,163
1982 995,498 675,321 271,784 504,768 483,027 2,930,398
1990 1,050,539 704,668 277,748 513,280 508,962 3,055,197
2005 1,208,761 754,997 297,854 551,971 587,162 3,400,745

An increase in the population was seen particularly as people migrated from all over France to the Loire region due to the rise of Nantes to prominence.

Major communities

The biggest city in Pays de la Loire is Nantes, which is the sixth most populated city in France with over 290,000 people (city proper) and a metropolitan population of almost 900,000.

Half-timbered houses in Angers

Angers is another metropolis of the region. It has a metropolitan population of about 400,000 and is the third biggest job provider in north-western France, just behind Nantes and Rennes.

Le Mans is another city in Pays de la Loire. Situated in north-east Pays de la Loire, Le Mans is home to over 300,000 (metropolitan population).

Notes

¹ In the 1960s, eight large regional cities of France (Lille, Nancy, Strasbourg, Lyon, Nantes, Bordeaux, Marseille, Toulouse) were made "balancing metropolises", receiving special financial and technical help from the French government in order to counterbalance the excessive weight of Paris inside France.

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pays de la Loire.

Coordinates: 47°28′N 0°50′W / 47.467°N 0.833°W / 47.467; -0.833

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/17/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.