(; French for "urban community") is the second most integrated form of intercommunality in France, after the ''

Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural area for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big city b ...

'' (). A is composed of a city ( commune) and its independent suburbs (independent communes). The first communautés urbaines were created by the French Parliament on 31 December 1966. Originally there were only four, found in the metropolitan areas of

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

, Lille,

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

and

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

. Later, others were created in other metropolitan areas. The purpose of the communautés urbaines was to achieve cooperation and joint administration between large cities and their independent suburbs. This step often followed failed attempts to merge the communes within a metropolitan area. The status of the communauté urbaine was modified by the Chevènement Law of 1999. Since the creation of the

métropole A (; French for "metropolis") is an administrative entity in France, in which several communes cooperate, and which has the right to levy local tax, an ''établissement public de coopération intercommunale à fiscalité propre''. It is the mo ...

s in 2011, several former communautés urbaines have become métropoles, for instance Nice,

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

, Nancy and Dijon. Unlike the case in either a

communauté d'agglomération An agglomeration community (, ) is a consortium of communes in France, communes (municipality, municipalities) in France, created as a government structure by the Jean-Pierre Chevènement, Chevènement Law of 1999. It is one of four forms of co ...

or communauté de communes, communes cannot leave a communauté urbaine freely. As of January 2025, there are 14 communautés urbaines in France (all in metropolitan France),Nombre de groupements depuis le 1er janvier 2007
BANATIC. Accessed 28 May 2025. with a combined population of 3.17 million inhabitants (as of 2022, in 2025 limits). All of the urban areas in France with more than half a million inhabitants are a communauté urbaine or a métropole. Some communautés urbaines are relatively small; smaller than many communautés d'agglomération. The communautés urbaines are each administered by a council called a "conseil communautaire" (community council), composed of a proportional representation of members of municipal councils of member towns. The council is headed by an executive composed of a president and vice-presidents elected by the council. The president is in many cases the mayor of the main or most populous city. The mayors of the others cities are often also vice-presidents of the executive, the deputies-mayors are often members of the council, as are some members of the towns' councils.

List of communautés urbaines

References

{{Communauté urbaine Fifth-level administrative divisions by country