Pays de la Loire

Région Pays de la Loire
Flag of Pays de la Loire
Region flag Region logo
Location
Map of France highlighting the Region of Pays de la Loire
Administration
Capital Nantes
Regional President Jacques Auxiette
(PS) (since 2004)
Departments Loire-Atlantique
Mayenne
Maine-et-Loire
Sarthe
Vendée
Arrondissements 17
Cantons 192
Communes 1,503
Statistics
Land area1 32,082 km²
Population (Ranked 5th)
 - January 1, 2007 est. 3,455,000
 - March 8, 1999 census 3,222,061
 - Density (2007) 108/km²
1 French Land Register data, which exclude lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km² (0.386 sq. mi. or 247 acres) as well as the estuaries of rivers
France

Pays de la Loire is one of the 26 regions of France. It is one of the regions created in the late 20th century to serve as a zone of influence for its capital, Nantes, one of a handful so-called "balancing metropolises" (métropoles d'équilibre)¹. Other examples of "artificially created" regions include Rhône-Alpes, which was created as the region for Lyon, and Midi-Pyrénées, which was created as the region for Toulouse. These regions were created by Pétain under Hitler.

Contents

Geography

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

Consequently, the name of the region, chosen by the French central government, was not based on history, but purely on geographical references: Pays (i.e. "lands") de la Loire (i.e. "of the Loire River"). However, the majority of the famous châteaux of the Loire Valley are located in the Centre region, and not inside Pays de la Loire, despite the confusing name. The Pays de la Loire present many great monuments as the castles of Angers, Laval, Mayenne and the Nantes "Château des Ducs de Bretagne", the Royal Fontevraud Abbey (the widest monastic ensemble in Europe), the old city of Le Mans but also many Natural Parks (as the Brière, 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

Major communities

  • Angers
  • Cholet
  • Châteaubriant
  • La Roche-sur-Yon
  • Laval
  • Le Mans
  • Nantes
  • Orvault
  • Rezé
  • Saint-Herblain
  • Saint-Nazaire
  • Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire
  • Saumur
  • Vertou


External links

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.