Nord (French department)

Nord (French pronunciation:; officially French: Département du Nord; Picard: Départémint dech Nord; Dutch: Noorderdepartement, lit.'northern department') is a department in Hauts-de-Franceregion in France, bordering Belgium. It was created from the western halves of the historical counties of Flanders and Hainaut, and the Bishopric of Cambrai. The modern coat of arms was inherited from the County of Flanders.

Nord is the country's most populous département. It had a population of 2,615,635 in 2023. It also contains the metropolitan region of Lille (the main city and the prefecture of the département), the fourth-largest urban area in France after Paris, Lyon and Marseille. The department is the part of France where the French Flemish dialect of Dutch has historically been spoken as a native language. Similarly, the distinct French Picard dialect Ch'ti is spoken there.