Loire
Coat of Arms of Loire
Location
Administration
Department number:	42
Region:	Rhône-Alpes
Prefecture:	Saint-Étienne
Subprefectures:	Montbrison Roanne
Arrondissements:	3
Cantons:	40
Communes:	327
President of the General Council:	Bernard Bonne UMP
Statistics
Population	Ranked 27th
-1999	728,524
Population density:	152/km2
Land area¹:	4781 km2
¹ French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2.

Loire (Arpitan: Lêre, Occitan: Léger) is an administrative department in the east-central part of France occupying the River Loire's upper reaches.

[edit] History

Loire was created in 1793 when the original department of Rhône-et-Loire was split.

Its capitals have been the following:

• Feurs from 1793-1795
• Montbrison from 1795-1855
• Saint-Étienne since 1855

[edit] Geography

Loire is part of the current administrative region of Rhône-Alpes and is surrounded by the departments of Rhône, Isère, Ardèche, Haute-Loire, Puy-de-Dôme, Allier, and Saône-et-Loire.

The River Loire traverses the department from south to north.

The Loire department is split into three arrondissements:

• Arrondissement of Montbrison
• Arrondissement of Roanne
• Arrondissement of Saint-Étienne

[edit] Demographics

The inhabitants of the department are called Ligériens.

The industrial city of Saint-Étienne with its suburbs contains some 290,000 of the area's 728,542 inhabitants.

[edit] See also

• Rhône-Alpes
• Cantons of the Loire department
• Communes of the Loire department
• Arrondissements of the Loire department

[edit] External links

• (French) Prefecture website
• (French) General Council website

Coordinates: 45°05′N 04°05′E / 45.083°N 4.083°E / 45.083; 4.083