According to abbreviationfinder, Paris is the capital of France and the Parisian Region. Constituted as the only single-departmental commune in the country, it is located on both banks of a long meander of the Seine River, in the center of the Parisian basin, between the confluence of the Marne River and the Seine upstream, and the Oise and the Seine downstream.
Geography
Paris is located in northern France, north of the great bend of the river Seine. In the center of the city there are two islands that make up its oldest part, Île Saint-Louis and the Ile de la Cité. In general, the city is relatively flat, and the lowest altitude is 35 meters above sea level. In Paris several hills stand out, the highest being Montmartre at 130 meters.
The last major modification of the Paris area occurred in 1860. In addition to the annexation of peripheral lands and giving it its modern form, in this modification twenty arrondissements (municipal districts) were created, in a spiral shape and following the direction of the needles of the watch. Of the 78 km² that Paris covered in 1860, the city expanded to 86.9 km² in the 1920s. In 1929 the Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes forest parks were officially annexed to the city, which formed its current area of 105.4 km².
The demographic area extends well beyond the city limits, forming an irregular oval with extensions of urban growth along the Seine and Marne rivers to the southeast and east, as well as along the Seine and the Oise river. to the northwest and north. Beyond the main suburbs, the population density drops sharply: a mixture of forests and agricultural areas with a series of satellite cities distributed in a dispersed and relatively uniform way. This urban crown, when combined with the agglomeration of Paris, completes the urban area of Paris, which covers an oval of 14,518 km², an area about 138 times larger than that of Paris.
Demography
The population of Paris was 25,000 in 59 BC. n. and., a number that increased to 80,000 in 150. After the Frankish invasions, the city lost population, with 50,000 residents in 510 and reaching a minimum in 1000, after the Viking invasions, it had a approximate total of 20,000 residents. See population of France.
Paris is the center of a metropolitan area that in 1999 had 11.17 million residents, the second in the European Union after London (United Kingdom). In 2007, the city already had a total of 2.19 million residents, a population less than its maximum demographic, which was in 1921, in the interwar period. However, in recent years it has grown again as has happened in other large metropolises. Half of the residents under the age of 15 are of foreign descent, in particular of Maghreb origin and other former French colonies in sub-Saharan Africa.
Starting in the 1950s, the population of Paris suffered a significant decline, despite an increase in housing, but since 1999 the decline has stopped. The latest census shows a growth of> 2.5% between 1999 and 2006.
Average household size has fallen in Paris: the decline in the coexistence of adult generations and fewer children per couple has long been the main explanation. However, the decrease in household size is mainly due to the attraction that young adults without children have, since they can enjoy leisure and employment in the capital and defray the expenses of small-scale real estate.
In contrast, couples with children tend to migrate to the suburbs, where houses are more suitable and cheaper. This dynamic of suburban Paris and the rest of its region explains why 58% of homes have one or two rooms.
Economy
Paris is one of the engines of the world economy. In 2006, the GDP of the Paris Region was estimated by INSEE at 500 billion euros. If it were a country, this region would be the seventeenth largest economy in the world (as of 2006), with a GDP almost as large as that of the Netherlands. Although in terms of population, the urban area of Paris represents less than 20% of the urban area of France, the GDP reaches 28.4% of the total. In terms of urban areas, according to the United Nations, its GDP is the fifth largest in the world after Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, and the first in Europe. Its GDP is comparable to the GDP of small first world countries.
Paris’s economy is extremely diverse and has not yet adopted a specialization within the global economy (similar to Los Angeles with the entertainment industry, or London and New York with financial services). Paris is essentially a service economy: 45% of the Paris region’s GDP is made up of financial services, real estate, and business solutions.
Almost half of the GDP of the Paris Region is generated by the business sector and financial services. The country’s financial sector is concentrated in this city. The Paris region remains one of Europe’s manufacturing powerhouses, due to the large size of its economy, with a shift from traditional to high-tech industry.
Its economy is based mainly on the manufacture of machinery of all kinds. Also noteworthy is the production of luxury items, such as haute couture, jewelry and perfumes. In its port on the Atlantic in the city of Le Havre, it moves the fourth largest volume of tonnage in Europe. The French agricultural sector operates mainly in this city, which has the largest warehouse of agricultural goods in the world.
Within the Paris region, economic activity is most intense in the central portion of the Hauts-de-Seine department and in the triangle between the Opera, La Défense and Val de Seine. Hauts-de-Seine has become something of an extension of central Paris, with 873,775 workers at the end of 2005, more than half the number in the city of Paris proper (1,653,551 employees at the end of 2005).
