Nice metropolitan area (french: aire d'attraction de Nice) as defined by INSEE in 2021 is the

functional urban area The larger urban zone (LUZ), or functional urban area (FUA), is a measure of the population and expanse of metropolitan and surrounding areas which may or may not be exclusively urban. It consists of a city and its commuting zone outside it. Th ...

or commuting zone of the city of

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

, southeastern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. It covers 100 communes, has 1,103,527 inhabitants (2021) and an area of 2,073 km².Aire d'attraction des villes 2020 de Nice (017)
INSEE It partly overlaps with the

urban unit In France, an urban unit (''fr: "unité urbaine"'') is a statistical area defined by INSEE, the French national statistics office, for the measurement of contiguously built-up areas. According to the INSEE definition , an "unité urbaine" is a ...

(contiguously built-up area) of Nice, which covers some cities, e.g.

Antibes Antibes (, also , ; oc, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal, Antíbol) is a coastal city in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department of southeastern France, on the French Riviera, Côte d'Azur between Cannes and Nice. The town of ...

Grasse Grasse (; Provençal dialect, Provençal oc, Grassa in classical norm or in Mistralian norm ; traditional it, Grassa) is the only Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in the Provence- ...

and

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions I ...

, that are part of the functional area Cannes-Antibes.

Geography

The functional urban area of Nice covers the central and southern part of the

Alpes-Maritimes Alpes-Maritimes (; oc, Aups Maritims; it, Alpi Marittime, "Maritime Alps") is a department of France located in the country's southeast corner, on the Italian border and Mediterranean coast. Part of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, it ...

department (98 communes) and two adjacent communes in

Alpes-de-Haute-Provence Alpes-de-Haute-Provence or sometimes abbreviated as AHP (; oc, Aups d'Auta Provença; ) is a department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of France, bordering Alpes-Maritimes and Italy to the east, Var to the south, Vaucluse to the west ...

. The urban area of

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

Menton Menton (; , written ''Menton'' in classical norm or ''Mentan'' in Mistralian norm; it, Mentone ) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera, close to the Italian border. Me ...

lies adjacent to the east, the urban area of

lies adjacent to the southwest. The most populous communes in the urban area are Nice,

Cagnes-sur-Mer Cagnes-sur-Mer (, literally ''Cagnes on Sea''; oc, Canha de Mar) is a French Riviera town in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. Geography Cagnes-sur-Mer is a town in south-eastern ...

Carros Carros (; oc, Carròs) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France. Carros is one of sixteen villages grouped together by the Métropole Nice Côte d'Azur tourist department as the ''Route des Villages Perchés'' (Rout ...

Saint-Laurent-du-Var Saint-Laurent-du-Var (; Occitan: ''Sant Laurenç de Var'', Italian: ''San Lorenzo del Varo'') is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera. History The town was founded in the 11 ...

, La Trinité,

Vence Vence (; oc, Vença) is a commune set in the hills of the Alpes Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France, north of Nice and Antibes. Ecclesiastical history The first known Bishop of Vence is Severu ...

and

Villeneuve-Loubet Villeneuve-Loubet (; oc, Vilanuòva e Lo Lobet; it, Villanova Lobetto) is a Communes of France, commune in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region in southeastern Fran ...

, all of which are on or close to the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

coast. Transportation is based on a railway line and vital

A8 autoroute The A8 autoroute, also known as La Provençale, is a -long highway in France that runs between Aix-en-Provence and the A7 to the Côte d'Azur. Route The A8 is an extension of the A7 starting to the west of Aix-en-Provence at La Fare-les-Olivi ...

, built from 1966.

Nice Côte d'Azur Airport Nice Côte d'Azur Airport (french: link=no, Aéroport Nice Côte d'Azur) is an international airport located southwest of Nice, in the Alpes-Maritimes ''départment'' of France. It is the third busiest airport in France and serves as a focus ...

is the second biggest in

with more than 9 million passengers welcomed every year.

History

In the beginning of the nineteenth century, Nice was a 20,000 inhabitants city belonging to the

Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia The Kingdom of Sardinia,The name of the state was originally Latin: , or when the kingdom was still considered to include Corsica. In Italian it is , in French , in Sardinian , and in Piedmontese . also referred to as the Kingdom of Savoy-S ...

. It grew steadily to reach 48,273 inhabitants in 1861, one year after annexation to the

French Second Empire The Second French Empire (; officially the French Empire, ), was the 18-year Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 14 January 1852 to 27 October 1870, between the Second and the Third Republic of France. Historians in the 1930s a ...

. By the end of the century, the population was over 100,000. The urbanized area began to spread outside city limits, in La Trinité to the North,

Villefranche-sur-Mer Villefranche-sur-Mer (, ; oc, Vilafranca de Mar ; it, Villafranca Marittima ) is a resort town in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera and is located south-west of the Principality of ...

to the East and

to the West. In the meantime, old cities, about 30 km to the West, like

were experiencing regular growth as well. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, growth increased with the development of mass tourism and development of transports in the region. The consequences of the end of the

Algerian War The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence,( ar, الثورة الجزائرية '; '' ber, Tagrawla Tadzayrit''; french: Guerre d'Algérie or ') and sometimes in Algeria as the War of 1 November ...

were also very important for the region's population, with many

Pied-Noir The ''Pieds-Noirs'' (; ; ''Pied-Noir''), are the people of French people, French and other White Africans of European ancestry, European descent who were born in Algeria during the French Algeria, period of French rule from 1830 to 1962; the v ...

s settling in the area. The growth in main cities decreased, while new town were growing very quickly like

Vallauris Vallauris (; oc, Valàuria) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. It is located in the metropolitan area, and is today effectively an extension of the town of Antibes ...

Le Cannet Le Cannet (; oc, Lo Canet; older it, Canneto) is a commune of the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France. Administration Le Cannet was part of Cannes until 1778, when it was made a separate commune. Location Le Cannet is locate ...

. In the 1990 census, INSEE identified two distinct

aire urbaine An ''aire urbaine'' (literal and official translation: "urban area") is an INSEE (France's national statistics bureau) statistical concept describing a core of urban development and the extent of its commuter activity. It was replaced by the c ...

s in the département :

, with 539,217 inhabitants, and Cannes-Grasse-Antibes with 352,000 inhabitants. Only nine years later, with the 1999 census, the two ''aires'' merged to form French sixth aire urbaine. At the 2010 zoning, the ''aire urbaine'' of Nice consisted of 129 communes, of which 2 in

, 5 in

Var Var or VAR may refer to: Places * Var (department), a department of France * Var (river), France * Vār, Iran, village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Var, Iran (disambiguation), other places in Iran * Vár, a village in Obreja commune, Ca ...

and 122 in

.Aire urbaine 2010 de Nice (007)
/ref> At the 2020 zoning, the functional area of Cannes-Antibes was separated from that of Nice. The table below shows the evolution of the seven most important

communes An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, ...

parts of nowadays ''aire urbaine'' of Nice (census data).

Organisation

This statistic-based metropolitan area is divided into multiple administrative divisions. Among them are : *

Métropole Nice Côte d'Azur Métropole Nice Côte d'Azur is the ''métropole'', an intercommunal structure, centred on the city of Nice. It is located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, southeastern France. It was created in Decem ...

, that groups 51 communes, not all of them belonging to the metropolitan area. This agglomeration community is 1,480 square kilometers large and hosts 546,000 inhabitants. *

Communauté d'agglomération de Sophia Antipolis The Communauté d'agglomération de Sophia Antipolis (CASA) is the ''communauté d'agglomération'', an intercommunal structure, centred on the city of Antibes. It is located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azu ...

, 24 communes, 10 of which in the metropolitan area of Nice *

Communauté d'agglomération du Pays de Grasse Communauté d'agglomération du Pays de Grasse is an intercommunal structure, centred on the city of Grasse. It is located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, southeastern France. It was created in Janua ...

, 23 communes, 5 of which in the metropolitan area of Nice * Communauté de communes Alpes d'Azur, 34 communes, not all of them part of the metropolitan area of Nice * Communauté de communes du Pays des Paillons, 11 communes, all part of the metropolitan area of Nice

References

Metropolitan areas of France Nice {{AlpesMaritimes-geo-stub

Geography

History

Organisation

See also

References