An aire d'attraction d'une ville (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, 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. 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. 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.
The functional area is a grouping of communes comprising a 'population and employment centre' (pôle de population et d'emploi in French), which Eurostat calls "city" or "greater city" (depending on the FUA), defined according to population and employment criteria, and an outlying 'commuting zone' (couronne in French), which Eurostats calls "commuting zone" in English, like INSEE, but zone de navettage in French (unlike INSEE which calls it couronne), in which at least 15% of the working population work in the population and employment centre.
Table Rank(2023)Rank(2012)Rank(1990)Functional area(AAV)Population(2023)Population(2012)Population(1990)Yearly change(2012–2023)Yearly change(1990–2012)Land area(km²)Number ofcommunes111 Paris13,320,752 12,734,837 11,392,740 +0.41%+0.51% 18,9411,929222 Lyon2,339,329 2,135,294 1,790,325 +0.83%+0.81% 4,606398333 Marseille – Aix-en-Provence 1,917,728 1,815,196 1,594,849 +0.50% +0.59%3,972115444 Lille (French part) 1,530,624 1,470,295 1,390,191 +0.37% +0.26%1,666201556 Toulouse 1,529,112 1,322,271 935,009 +1.33%+1.60%6,520527665 Bordeaux 1,426,278 1,229,618 986,179 +1.36%+1.02%6,316275777 Nantes 1,050,815 917,944 722,234 +1.24%+1.11%3,471116888 Strasbourg (French part) 875,163 817,493 704,238 +0.62%+0.69% 2,22726891013 Montpellier 842,923 722,859 501,936 +1.41%+1.69%2,414161101212 Rennes 789,516 695,892 521,255 +1.15%+1.33%3,80418311910 Grenoble 727,380 702,884 614,455 +0.31%+0.62%2,87620412119 Rouen 715,234 691,256 646,549 +0.31%+0.31% 2,792317131311 Nice641,721 603,992 558,520 +0.55%+0.36%2,073100141416 Toulon 591,135 546,677 481,466 +0.71%+0.58%1,00435151617 Tours 529,468 504,231 437,547 +0.44%+0.65% 3,632162161818 Clermont-Ferrand 510,668 476,679 432,862 +0.51%+0.50%2,845209171514 Nancy 507,812 511,901 496,486 -0.07%+0.14%3,121353181715 Saint-Étienne 503,351 489,046 491,789 +0.26%-0.03%1,636105191919 Caen 486,716 455,492 399,635 +0.60%+0.60% 2,597296202020 Orléans 463,435 432,433 374,252 +0.63%+0.66%3,422136213041 Geneva – Annemasse (French part) 460,952 382,331 258,475 +1.71%+1.81%1,737158222223 Angers448,162 414,843 355,626 +0.70%+0.70% 2,41981232634 Perpignan 432,128 392,701 301,619 +0.87%+1.22% 1,775118242322 Dijon 419,527 400,804 365,025 +0.42%+0.43%3,896333252121 Mulhouse 410,900 408,461 370,251 +0.05%+0.45%1,227132262430 Cannes-Antibes 404,118 393,308 332,735 +0.25%+0.77%43224272827 Brest 381,115 362,509 335,795 +0.46%+0.35%1,877245282726 Metz 378,942 364,812 338,432 +0.35%+0.34%1,26568292933 Le Mans 371,448 363,691 326,702 +0.19%+0.49%2,340144303940 Nîmes 357,349 332,737 259,675 +0.65%+1.14%1,46892313232 Reims 356,721 348,281 329,208 +0.22%+0.26% 3,251294323131 Amiens 354,121 349,530 329,781 +0.12%+0.27% 3,076369332525 Fort-de-France 346,577 372,379 340,815 -0.65%+0.41%97428343838 Avignon 345,592 323,996 272,025 +0.59%+0.80%96448353428 Valenciennes (French part) 336,830 336,466 335,758 +0.01%+0.01% 725102
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
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