Rhône (department)

For the river, see Rhône. For other uses, see Rhone (disambiguation).

Rhône (French pronunciation: [ʁon]; Arpitan: Rôno) is a French department located in the east-central administrative region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Named after the river Rhône, its prefecture is Lyon. Its sole subprefecture is Villefranche-sur-Saône. Including the Lyon Metropolis, it had a population of 1,875,747 in 2019.^[2]

Rhône Rôno (Arpitan)
Department of France
The prefecture building of the Rhône department in the 3rd arrondissement of Lyon, which also houses the Departmental Council of Rhône.
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Rhône in France
Coordinates: 45°50′N 04°40′E
Country	France
Region	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Prefecture	Lyon
Subprefectures	Villefranche-sur-Saône
Government
• President of the Departmental Council	Christophe Guilloteau[1] (LR)
Area 1
• Total	2,715 km2 (1,048 sq mi)
Population  (2022)
• Total	474,369
• Rank	55th
• Density	170/km2 (450/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Department number	69D
Arrondissements	2
Cantons	13
Communes	208
^1 French Land Register data, which excludes estuaries and lakes, ponds and glaciers larger than 1 km².

History

The department was created on August 12, 1793, when the former Rhône-et-Loire was split into two departments: Rhône and Loire.

Originally, the eastern border of Rhône was the city of Lyon itself, so that the communes immediately east of Lyon belonged to neighboring departments. With the growth of Lyon and the extension of its urban area into communes such as Villeurbanne, the limits of the department were judged impractical as they left the suburbs of Lyon outside of Rhône. Thus, Rhône was enlarged several times to incorporate into it the suburbs of Lyon from neighboring department:

• In 1852, four communes from Isère were incorporated into Rhône.^[3]
• In 1967, 23 communes of Isère and six communes of Ain were incorporated into Rhône.
• In 1971, one commune from Isère was incorporated into Rhône.

With these enlargements, the area of the department increased from 2,791 km² to 3,249 km² (16.4% larger). At the 1999 French census, the original department of Rhône would have had only 1,071,288 inhabitants, which means that the population in the territories added in the last two centuries was 507,581 inhabitants in 1999.

In 2015 the Metropolis of Lyon was separated from the department of Rhône.^[4] Rhône lost 16% of its territory, and 75% of its population.^[5] Lyon, although no longer part of the department, remains its administrative center.

Geography

Rivers include the Rhône and the Saône (which joins the Rhône in Lyon). The neighboring departments are Ain, Isère, Loire and Saône-et-Loire.

Demographics

Population development since 1801 (with Lyon Metropolis) :

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1801 299,390 —     1831 434,429 +1.25% 1841 500,831 +1.43% 1851 574,745 +1.39% 1861 662,493 +1.43% 1872 670,247 +0.11% 1881 741,470 +1.13% 1891 806,737 +0.85% 1901 843,179 +0.44% 1911 915,581 +0.83% 1921 956,566 +0.44% 1931 1,046,028 +0.90%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1936 1,028,379 −0.34% 1946 918,866 −1.12% 1954 966,782 +0.64% 1962 1,116,664 +1.82% 1968 1,325,571 +2.90% 1975 1,429,647 +1.09% 1982 1,445,208 +0.15% 1990 1,508,966 +0.54% 1999 1,578,869 +0.50% 2006 1,669,653 +0.80% 2016 1,835,903 +0.95%
source:[6][7]

Before the Metropolis of Lyon was separated from the department, over 75% of its population lived within the Greater Lyon, which included all of the largest cities of the Rhône department, apart from Villefranche-sur-Saône.

The most populous commune of the new department of Rhône is Villefranche-sur-Saône. As of 2019, there are 5 communes with more than 10,000 inhabitants:^[2]

Commune	Population (2021)
Villefranche-sur-Saône	35,913
Belleville-en-Beaujolais	13,542
Genas	13,483
Brignais	12,388
Tarare	10,428

Politics

The President of the Departmental Council has been Christophe Guilloteau since 2015, a member of The Republicans (LR).

Current National Assembly representatives

Constituency		Member[8]	Party
	Rhône's 1st constituency	Anaïs Belouassa-Cherifi	LFI
	Rhône's 2nd constituency	Boris Tavernier	LÉ–EELV
	Rhône's 3rd constituency	Marie-Charlotte Garin	LÉ–EELV
	Rhône's 4th constituency	Sandrine Runel	PS
	Rhône's 5th constituency	Blandine Brocard	MoDem
	Rhône's 6th constituency	Gabriel Amard	LFI
	Rhône's 7th constituency	Alexandre Vincendet	LR
	Rhône's 8th constituency	Jonathan Géry	RN
	Rhône's 9th constituency	Alexandre Portier	LR
	Rhône's 10th constituency	Thomas Gassilloud	RE
	Rhône's 11th constituency	Jean-Luc Fugit	RE
	Rhône's 12th constituency	Cyrille Isaac-Sibille	MoDem
	Rhône's 13th constituency	Tiffany Joncour	RN
	Rhône's 14th constituency	Idir Boumertit	LFI

This list includes representatives from the Lyon Metropolis created in 2015 as a separate department.

Tourism

• 
  Beaujolais vineyards
• 
  Oingt, one of The Most Beautiful Villages of France
• 
  Château de Jarnioux

See also

• Cantons of the Rhône department
• Communes of the Rhône department
• Arrondissements of the Rhône department