Allier is a department in the centre of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. It is named after the river Allier, a tributary of the Loire. Its prefecture is Moulins.

History

Allier is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790 with Moulins as its capital. It was formed from most of all the former province of Bourbonnais (the Duchy of Bourbonnais); Saint-Amand-Montrond, in the Cher department, was the only part of the old province that was not made part of Allier.

It was divided in seven districts: Cérilly, Moulins, Le Donjon, Cusset, Gannat, Montmarault and Montluçon.

In 1800, with the creation of the arrondissements in France, the seven districts were changed into four arrondissements: Moulins, Gannat, Lapalisse and Montluçon.

On 10 September 1926, the arrondissement of Gannat was eliminated and in 1941 Vichy became the capital of one arrondissement of the department instead of Lapalisse.

In 1940, during World War II, the city of Vichy was the capital of Vichy France.

Geography
Allier is part of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. It has an area of .

It is  long from east to west and  wide from north to south.

The department borders with 6 other departments in 4 regions:
 Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region
 Nièvre (north)
 Saône-et-Loire (east)
 Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region
 Loire (southeast)
 Puy-de-Dôme (south)
 Nouvelle-Aquitaine region
 Creuse (west)
 Centre-Val de Loire region
 Cher (northwest)

There are four main geographical zones in the department:
 The Bourbonnais Bocage covers about one third of the departement, covering most of the western and central parts of the department. 
 The Bourbonnais Sologne is to the east of the department, between the valley of the river Allier and the borders of Nièvre and Saône-et-Loire departments in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.
 The Bourbonnais Mountains are in the southeast of the department. In these mountains, where the departments Allier, Puy-de-Dome and Loire meet, is the highest point of the department, Puy de Montoncel (); it is  high.
 The Bourbonnais Limagne, commonly called as Val d'Allier ("Valley of the Allier"), found on both sides of the river between Vichy and Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule.

The main rivers in the department are:
 Cher in the western part of the department.
 Allier and its tributary the Sioule, in the centre.
 Loire and its tributary the Besbre, in the east.

Climate
The Köppen climate classification type for the climate at Nevers is an "Oceanic climate" (also known as Maritime Temperate climate) and of the subtype "Cfb".

There are two periods of maximum precipitation in June and October and a minimum in January and February with average of  Montluçon (altitude: 207 m),  in Moulins (245 m)  in Vichy (251 m); and  in Lapalisse (285 m).

Administration
Allier is managed by the Departmental Council of Allier in Moulins. The department is part of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.

Administrative divisions
There are 3 arrondissements (districts), 19 cantons and 317 communes (municipalities) in Allier.

The following is a list of the 19 cantons of the Allier department (with their INSEE codes), following the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015:

 Bellerive-sur-Allier (0301)
 Bourbon-l'Archambault (0302)
 Commentry (0303)
 Cusset (0304)
 Dompierre-sur-Besbre (0305)
 Gannat (0306)
 Huriel (0307)
 Lapalisse (0308)
 Montluçon-1 (0309)
 Montluçon-2 (0310)
 Montluçon-3 (0311)
 Montluçon-4 (0312)
 Moulins-1 (0313)
 Moulins-2 (0314)
 Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule (0315)
 Souvigny (0316)
 Vichy-1 (0317)
 Vichy-2 (0318)
 Yzeure (0319)

Demographics
There is not a traditional demonym to name the inhabitants of the Allier department. Some names used are Alliérins, Bourbonnais, Elavérins, or simply habitants de l'Allier ("inhabitants of Allier").

Of these names, the most used is Bourbonnais followed by habitants de l'Allier.

Allier had a population, in 2014, of 343,062, for a population density of  inhabitants/km2. The arrondissement of Vichy, with 122,267 inhabitants, is the arrondissement with more inhabitants.

Evolution of the population in Allier

The 10 communes in the department with more inhabitants are:

Gallery

Related pages
 Arrondissements of the Allier department
 Communes of the Allier department

References

Other websites

 General Council website 
 Prefecture website 
 Allier tourism

Departments in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes