# Essonne

Essonne (French pronunciation: ) is a department in the southern part of the Île-de-France region in Northern France. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659, across 194 communes.
Essonne was formed on 1 January 1968, when Seine-et-Oise was split into smaller departments. Its prefecture is Évry-Courcouronnes. Its INSEE and postcode number is 91.

## History

The Essonne department was created on 1 January 1968, from the southern portion of the former department of Seine-et-Oise.
In June 1963, Carrefour S.A. opened the first hypermarket in the Paris region at Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois (although the word "hypermarché" was first used only in 1966). Based on the ideas put forward by the American logistics pioneer Bernardo Trujillo, the centre offered on a single 2,500 m$^2$ (26,909.78 sq ft) site a hitherto unknown combination of wide choice and low prices, supported by 400 car parking spaces.
In 1969, the communes of Châteaufort and Toussus-le-Noble were separated from Essonne and added to the department of Yvelines.

## Geography

Essonne belongs to the region of Île-de-France.
It has borders with the departments of:
* Hauts-de-Seine and Val-de-Marne to the north,
* Seine-et-Marne to the east,
* Loiret to the south,
* Eure-et-Loir and Yvelines to the west.
All of northern Essonne department belongs to the Parisian agglomeration and is very urbanized. The south remains rural.

### Principal towns

The most populous commune is Évry-Courcouronnes, the prefecture. As of 2019, the 5 most populous communes are:
| Commune | Population (2019) |
| Évry-Courcouronnes | 66,851 |
| Corbeil-Essonnes | 51,234 |
| Massy | 50,644 |
| Savigny-sur-Orge | 36,577 |
| Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois | 35,830 |
In descending order, the other communes over 25,000 population are: Athis-Mons, Palaiseau, Vigneux-sur-Seine, Viry-Châtillon, Ris-Orangis, Yerres, Draveil, Grigny, Brétigny-sur-Orge, Étampes, Brunoy and Les Ulis. Milly-la-Forêt is a notable example of its more rural communes.

## Main sights

* The École Polytechnique. Founded in 1794, L'Ecole Polytechnique is one of the most prestigious engineering universities in France. This university was ranked 10th in the world by the Times Higher Education Supplement in 2005. Its campus is in the town of Palaiseau.
* Paris-Sud University. One of the best public schools in France, it is ranked 52nd by Academic Ranking of World Universities. It is best known for its mathematics department. Located in Orsay, Essonne, about 26,000 students are enrolled.
* The Headquarters of the Arianespace Company, a major commercial aerospace launcher, servicing companies who wish to launch satellites into space.
* Château de Montlhéry. Originally having been an ancient fort during Roman times, the first feudal lords began to inhabit the castle around 1000 AD. One major battle was fought in the castle during its lifetime. In 1465, Charles the Rash and French King Louis XI fought in the plains in front of the castle. In 1842, the reconstruction of the castle was started, and currently is being maintained by the local town of Montlhery
* Château de Courances
* The Forest of Sénart. Covering 3,500 hectares in area, this forest is very important to the local population. The local government has kept roads and agricultural companies from cutting down parts of this forest. The forest receives between two and three million visitors annually, and the government spends 1.2 million euros a year maintaining it.
* Telecom Sudparis. Situated in Évry, this is a grande école for engineers

## Politics

The department's most high-profile political representative has been Manuel Valls, who was Prime Minister of France from 31 March 2014 to 6 December 2016. Valls visited its main town, Évry, to deliver remarks following the Charlie Hebdo massacre of January 2015. The president of the Departmental Council is François Durovray, elected in 2015.

### Presidential election, second round

| Election | Winning Candidate | Party | % | 2nd Place Candidate | Party | % |
| 2022 | Emmanuel Macron | LREM | 65.43 | Marine Le Pen | FN | 34.57 |
| 2017 | Emmanuel Macron | LREM | 72.18 | Marine Le Pen | FN | 27.82 |
| 2012 | François Hollande | PS | 53.43 | Nicolas Sarkozy | UMP | 46.57 |
| 2007 | Nicolas Sarkozy | UMP | 52.08 | Ségolène Royal | PS | 47.92 |
| 2002 | Jacques Chirac | RPR | 84.96 | Jean-Marie Le Pen | FN | 15.04 |
| 1995 | Jacques Chirac | RPR | 53.30 | Lionel Jospin | PS | 15.04 |

### Members of the National Assembly

| Constituency | Member | Party |
| Essonne's 1st constituency | Francis Chouat | La République En Marche! |
| Essonne's 2nd constituency | Franck Marlin | The Republicans |
| Essonne's 3rd constituency | Laëtitia Romeiro Dias | La République En Marche! |
| Essonne's 4th constituency | Marie-Pierre Rixain | La République En Marche! |
| Essonne's 5th constituency | Cédric Villani | Ecology Democracy Solidarity |
| Essonne's 6th constituency | Amélie de Montchalin | La République En Marche! |
| Essonne's 7th constituency | Robin Reda | The Republicans |
| Essonne's 8th constituency | Nicolas Dupont-Aignan | Debout la France |
| Essonne's 9th constituency | Marie Guévenoux | La République En Marche! |
| Essonne's 10th constituency | Pierre-Alain Raphan | La République En Marche! |

## Demographics

Population development since 1876:
| Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. |
| 1876 | 135,911 | — |
| 1881 | 140,027 | +0.60% |
| 1891 | 151,726 | +0.81% |
| 1901 | 164,617 | +0.82% |
| 1911 | 177,385 | +0.75% |
| 1921 | 187,188 | +0.54% |
| 1931 | 271,094 | +3.77% |
| 1936 | 286,896 | +1.14% |
| 1946 | 293,932 | +0.24% |
| 1954 | 350,987 | +2.24% |
| Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. |
| 1962 | 478,691 | +3.96% |
| 1968 | 673,325 | +5.85% |
| 1975 | 923,063 | +4.61% |
| 1982 | 988,000 | +0.98% |
| 1990 | 1,084,824 | +1.18% |
| 1999 | 1,134,238 | +0.50% |
| 2006 | 1,198,273 | +0.79% |
| 2010 | 1,215,340 | +0.35% |
| 2016 | 1,287,330 | +0.96% |
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. :
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### Place of birth of residents

Place of birth of residents of Essonne in 1999 :
| Born in metropolitan France | Born outside metropolitan France | Born outside metropolitan France | Born outside metropolitan France | Born outside metropolitan France |
| 84.7% | 15.3% | 15.3% | 15.3% | 15.3% |
| 84.7% | Born in overseas France | Born in foreign countries with French citizenship at birth$^1$ | EU-15 immigrants$^2$ | Non-EU-15 immigrants |
| 84.7% | 1.8% | 2.8% | 4.0% | 6.7% |
| $^1$ This group is made up largely of former French settlers, such as pieds-noirs in 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), as well as to a lesser extent foreign-born children of French expatriates. A foreign country is understood as a country not part of France in 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. 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. |||||

## Tourism

* Étampes
* Château de Dourdan
* Château de Montlhéry
* Longpont-sur-Orge
* Milly La Forêt

## Sister regions

Essonne is twinned with:
* Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan (since 1986)