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Nanterre
	Commune of Nanterre
	; Nanterre's modern city hall
	Location
	Paris and inner ring départements
Coordinates	48°53′29″N 2°12′16″E / 48.89139°N 2.20444°E
Administration
Country	France
Region	Île-de-France
Department	Hauts-de-Seine (préfecture)
Arrondissement	Nanterre
Canton	Chief town of 3 cantons
Intercommunality	none as of 2009
Mayor	Patrick Jarry; (2004–2008)
Statistics
Elevation	22–127 m (72–420 ft); (avg. 30 m/98 ft)
Land area1	12.19 km2 (4.71 sq mi)
Population2	88,316 (1 January 2006 census)
- Density	7,245 /km2 (18,760 /sq mi)
	Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	92050/ 92000
	1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
	2 Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Coordinates: 48°53′29″N 2°12′16″E / 48.89139°N 2.20444°E / 48.89139; 2.20444

Nanterre is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 11.1 km (6.9 mi) west from the center of Paris.

Nanterre is the préfecture (capital) of the Hauts-de-Seine département, as well as the seat of the Arrondissement of Nanterre.

The eastern part of Nanterre, bordering the communes of Courbevoie and Puteaux, contains a small part of the La Défense business district of Paris and some of the tallest buildings in the Paris region. Because the headquarters of many major corporations are located in La Défense, the court of Nanterre is well-known in the media for the number of high-profile lawsuits and trials that take place in it. The city of Nanterre also includes the University Paris X – Nanterre, one of the largest universities in the Paris region.

[edit] Name

The name of Nanterre originated before the Roman conquest of Gaul. The Romans recorded the name as Nemetodorum. It is composed of the Celtic word nemeto meaning "shrine" or "sacred place" and the Celtic word duros (cognate of English door and German Tür) meaning "door or gate", or "fortress". The sacred place referred to is supposed to have been a famous shrine that existed in antiquity on the top of the hill known as Mont-Valérien.

Inhabitants of Nanterre are called Nanterriennes (feminine) and Nanterriens (masculine).

[edit] History

Sainte Geneviève, patron saint of Paris, was born in Nanterre ca. 419-422.^[1]

On March 26, 2002, Richard Durn, a disgruntled local activist, shot and killed eight town councilors and 14 others were wounded in what the French press dubbed the Nanterre massacre. On March 28, the murderer killed himself by jumping from the 4th floor of the « Quai des orfèvres », in Paris, while he was questioned by two policemen about the reason for his killing in the Nanterre City Hall.

[edit] Demographics

[edit] Immigration

Place of birth of residents of Nanterre in 1999
Born in Metropolitan France	Born outside Metropolitan France
75.7%	24.3%
	Born in Overseas France	Born in foreign countries with French citizenship at birth¹	EU-15 immigrants²	Non-EU-15 immigrants
	2.7%	2.8%	3.9%	14.9%

¹This group is made up largely of pieds-noirs from Northwest Africa, followed by former colonial citizens who had French citizenship at birth (such as was often the case for the native elite in French colonies), and to a lesser extent foreign-born children of French expatriates. Note that a foreign country is understood as a country not part of France as of 1999, so a person born for example in 1950 in Algeria, when Algeria was an integral part of France, is nonetheless listed as a person born in a foreign country in French statistics.
² An immigrant is a person born in a foreign country not having French citizenship at birth. Note that an immigrant may have acquired French citizenship since moving to France, but is still considered an immigrant in French statistics. On the other hand, persons born in France with foreign citizenship (the children of immigrants) are not listed as immigrants.