The aire urbaine (not to be confused with English "urban area") is an INSEE (the national statistics office of France) statistical region comprising a couronne périurbaine commuter belt around a contiguous pôle urbain (urban area) urban core.
The aire urbaine is a demographical unit the result of a quite literal methodology: drawn upon France's nation-wide map of interlocking commune municipalities, the aire urbaine has for its centre a pôle urbain (similar to a unité urbaine ("urban unit") - see note below) core of communes containing an interconnecting and unbroken urban growth; this centre forms a "pole of attraction" for a couronne périurbaine ("periurban ring" or commuter belt) communes having at least 40% of their resident populations commuting with the pôle urbain, or with other communes having the same relation to the pôle urbain. The result is a precise demographic map of a) a centre of urban growth and b) its socio-economic reach into the surrounding area.
Note: There is a slight difference between a unité urbaine and a pôle urbain : the basic unité urbaine is a contiguous urban growth containing at least 5,000 jobs, and the pôle urbain is the same as a centre of demographic growth; that is to say it is an urban area that it is not contained within the couronne périurbaine (commuter belt) of any other pôle urbain.
Here is a list of the fifteen largest aires urbaines of France based on population at the 1999 census:
| Aire urbaine | Population (March 1999) | Yearly percent change (1990-1999) |
|---|---|---|
| 01- Paris | 11,174,743 | +0.32% |
| 02- Lyon | 1,648,216 | +0.68% |
| 03- Marseille | 1,516,340 | +0.46% |
| 04- Lille (figures do not include the part of Lille's metropolitan area which lies on Belgian territory) | 1,143,125 | +0.32% |
| 05- Toulouse | 964,797 | +1.54% |
| 06- Nice | 933,080 | +0.51% |
| 07- Bordeaux | 925,253 | +0.67% |
| 08- Nantes | 711,120 | +1.10% |
| 09- Strasbourg (figures do not include the part of Strasbourg's metropolitan area which lies on German territory, see Eurodistrict) | 612,104 | +0.81% |
| 10- Toulon | 564,823 | +0.69% |
| 11- Douai-Lens | 552,682 | – 0.17% |
| 12- Rennes | 521,188 | +1.32% |
| 13- Rouen | 518,316 | +0.29% |
| 14- Grenoble | 514,559 | +0.65% |
| 15- Montpellier | 459,916 | +1.89% |
