Functional area (France)

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.

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

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 2021 census. Population at the 2010 and 1990 censuses is indicated for comparison.

Rank (2021)	Rank (2010)	Rank (1990)	Functional area (AAV)	Population (2021)[6]	Population (2010)[7]	Population (1990)[8]	Yearly change (2010-2021)	Yearly change (1990-2010)	Land area (km²)[9]	Number of communes[10]
1	1	1	Paris	13,171,056	12,613,906	11,392,740	+0.39%	+0.52%	18,941	1,929
2	2	2	Lyon	2,308,818	2,091,488	1,790,325	+0.90%	+0.79%	4,606	398
3	3	3	Marseille - Aix-en-Provence	1,888,788	1,804,777	1,594,849	+0.41%	+0.63%	3,972	115
4	4	4	Lille (French part)	1,521,660	1,459,564	1,390,191	+0.38%	+0.25%	1,666	201
5	5	6	Toulouse	1,490,640	1,282,870	935,009	+1.37%	+1.61%	6,520	527
6	6	5	Bordeaux	1,393,764	1,196,972	986,179	+1.39%	+0.98%	6,316	275
7	7	7	Nantes	1,031,953	892,811	722,234	+1.33%	+1.08%	3,471	116
8	8	8	Strasbourg (French part)	864,993	809,529	704,238	+0.60%	+0.71%	2,227	268
9	10	13	Montpellier	823,120	698,392	501,936	+1.51%	+1.68%	2,414	161
10	12	12	Rennes	771,320	677,283	521,255	+1.19%	+1.33%	3,804	183
11	9	10	Grenoble	722,904	693,272	614,455	+0.38%	+0.61%	2,876	204
12	11	9	Rouen	709,065	685,241	646,549	+0.31%	+0.29%	2,792	317
13	13	11	Nice[note 2]	626,218	603,522	558,520	+0.34%	+0.39%	2,073	100
14	14	16	Toulon	581,948	541,932	481,466	+0.65%	+0.60%	1,004	35
15	16	17	Tours	522,597	497,597	437,547	+0.45%	+0.65%	3,632	162
16	15	14	Nancy	508,793	511,234	496,486	-0.04%	+0.15%	3,121	353
17	18	18	Clermont-Ferrand	508,699	476,679	432,862	+0.59%	+0.49%	2,845	209
18	17	15	Saint-Étienne	500,562	484,881	491,789	+0.29%	-0.07%	1,636	105
19	19	19	Caen	478,105	450,248	399,635	+0.55%	+0.60%	2,597	296
20	20	20	Orléans	456,452	428,397	374,252	+0.58%	+0.68%	3,422	136
21	30	41	Geneva - Annemasse (French part)[note 3]	444,368	365,223	258,475	+1.80%	+1.76%	1,737	158
22	22	23	Angers	441,234	408,469	355,626	+0.70%	+0.70%	2,419	81
23	26	34	Perpignan	422,786	383,052	301,619	+0.90%	+1.21%	1,775	118
24	23	22	Dijon	414,799	397,025	365,025	+0.40%	+0.42%	3,896	333
25	21	21	Mulhouse	408,968	404,434	370,251	+0.10%	+0.45%	1,227	132
26	24	30	Cannes - Antibes	393,687	390,517	332,735	+0.07%	+0.81%	432	24
27	28	27	Brest	375,744	361,038	335,795	+0.36%	+0.37%	1,877	245
28	27	26	Metz	375,059	364,307	338,432	+0.26%	+0.37%	1,265	68
29	29	33	Le Mans	369,998	359,742	326,702	+0.26%	+0.49%	2,340	144
30	32	32	Reims	355,889	344,574	329,208	+0.29%	+0.23%	3,251	294
31	31	31	Amiens	353,124	348,557	329,927	+0.12%	+0.28%	3,076	369
32	39	40	Nîmes	350,007	322,844	259,675	+0.74%	+1.10%	1,468	92
33	25	25	Fort-de-France	346,693	377,739	340,815	-0.78%	+0.52%	974	28
34	38	38	Avignon	339,324	319,936	272,025	+0.54%	+0.82%	964	48
35	34	28	Valenciennes (French part)	337,269	335,871	335,758	+0.04%	+0.00%	725	102

See also

• List of metropolitan areas in Europe by population
• Larger Urban Zone
• Demographics of France
• Unité urbaine, a different statistical concept developed by INSEE, measuring contiguously built-up areas

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 1,053,436 in Jan. 2021 (Swiss estimates and French census), 609,068 of them on Swiss territory and 444,368 on French territory.^[12]

References

1. "Le nouveau zonage en aires d'attraction des villes". INSEE. Retrieved 2022-04-26.
2. "Functional areas - Definition". INSEE. Retrieved 2022-04-26.
3. "Aire d'attraction des villes - Définition". INSEE. Retrieved 2022-04-26.
4. "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 2021 >> Tableau". Retrieved 2024-07-11.
7. INSEE. "France par aire d'attraction des villes - Population municipale (historique depuis 1876) 2010 >> Tableau". Retrieved 2024-07-11.
8. INSEE. "France par aire d'attraction des villes - Population municipale 1990 >> Tableau". Retrieved 2024-07-11.
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: ).
    Land area of the 158 French communes: 1737.1 km² (source: ).
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 2021: 609,068 (source: ).
    Population of the 158 French communes in January 2021: 444,368 (source: ).