Municipal Arrondissements of France - General Characteristics

General Characteristics

There are 45 municipal arrondissements in France: 20 in Paris (see: Arrondissements of Paris), nine in Lyon (see: Arrondissements of Lyon), and 16 in Marseille. However, a law in 1987 assigned the 16 arrondissements of Marseille to eight secteurs ("areas"), two arrondissements per secteur. Thus, in effect, Marseille can be more properly described as being divided into eight secteurs, the 16 arrondissements having been made hollow units.

Area

• The largest arrondissement is the ninth arrondissement of Marseille: 63.21 km² (24.4 sq. miles, or 15,620 acres), which is 26% of the size of the city of Marseille, and is 60% the size of the city of Paris (including the Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes). It contains the Luminy Park, which is a protected park and the calanques of Marseille.
• The smallest arrondissement is the second arrondissement of Paris: 0.992 km² (0.383 sq. miles, or 245 acres).

Population

• The most populous arrondissement is the 15th arrondissement of Paris, with 225,362 inhabitants at the 1999 census. If the 15th arrondissement of Paris were a commune, it would be the ninth most-populous commune of France, larger than the cities of Bordeaux, Lille, and Grenoble.
• The least populous arrondissement is the 16th arrondissement of Marseille, with only 16,574 inhabitants. However, the 16th arrondissement is part of the eighth secteur of Marseille (87,714 inhabitants), and is not really administered by itself as explained above. Thus, the least populous arrondissement in France is the first arrondissement of Paris, with 16,888 inhabitants at the 1999 census.

Density

• The arrondissement with the highest population density is the 11th arrondissement of Paris, with 40,672 residents per km² (105,339 per sq. miles) in 1999.
• The arrondissement with the lowest population density is the ninth arrondissement of Marseille, with 1,151 residents per km² (2,981 per sq. miles) in 1999.

Municipal arrondissements do not have names, except in Paris, where their names are seldom used. In Paris, people are well-used to the arrondissements, and when asked where they live they will answer with the number of their arrondissement. In Lyon, three arrondissements – Vieux Lyon (fifth), la Croix Rousse (fourth) and Vaise (ninth) – are generally referred to by name, while the others are referred to by number. In Marseille, it is common for people to refer to the names of the neighborhoods, such as Ste. Anne or Mazargues, but also to the number of the arrondissements.

Municipal arrondissements are used in the five-digit postal codes of France. The first two digits are the number of the département in which the address is located (75 for Paris; 69 for Rhône in which Lyon is located; thirteen for Bouches-du-Rhône in which Marseille is located), then the last three digits are the number of the arrondissement. So the postal code of a person living in the 5th arrondissement of Paris will be "75005 Paris", and for a person living in the 14th arrondissement of Marseille it will be "13014 Marseille". The only exception is the 16th arrondissement of Paris, which is divided between two postal codes: "75016 Paris" in the south of the arrondissement, and "75116 Paris" in the north of the arrondissement.

The arrondissements of Paris form a clockwise spiral or snail pattern beginning from the first in the centre. Those of Marseille form a meandering path from the first down through the southwest, to the southeast, northeast and finally to the northwest. The arrondissements of Lyon do not form any discernible pattern at all, and only two pairs of consecutive numbers – the first and second, and the seventh and eighth – border each other.

Some other large cities of France are also divided between several postal codes, although there the postal codes do not correspond to arrondissements.