Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

**Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes** (Franco-Provençal: _Ôvèrgne-Rôno-Ârpes_; ) is an administrative region of France that was created on 1 January 2016 from the former French regions Auvergne and Rhône-Alpes. It is in the central and eastern parts of southern France.

Its capital is the city of Lyon.

## Geography

The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region is the third largest region of Metropolitan France, after Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Occitanie, with an area of . It borders five French administrative regions: Bourgogne-Franche-Comté to the north, Centre-Val de Loire to the northwest, Nouvelle-Aquitaine to the west, Occitanie to the southwest and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur to the southeast. It also borders two countries: Italy to the east and Switzerland to the northeast.

The region has the Massif Central to the east and the Alps to the east, with the valley of the Rhône river between them. Half of the Ain department is occupied by the Jura Mountains.

The extreme points for the region are in the _communes_:
- North : Château-sur-Allier, Allier ()
- East : Bonneval-sur-Arc, Savoie ()
- South : Ferrassières, Drôme ()
- West : Siran, Cantal ()

Its capital, Lyon, is at  to the southwest of Paris, the national capital, at  to the northwest of Marseille and at  to the west of Bordeaux.

The distances from the different departmental capitals to Lyon, the regional capital, are:

- Bourg-en-Bresse (Ain) -
- Moulins (Allier) -
- Privas (Ardèche) -
- Aurillac (Cantal) -
- Valence (Drôme) -
- Grenoble (Isère) -
- Saint-Étienne (Loire) -
- Le Puy-en-Velay (Haute-Loire) -
- Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme) -
- Chambéry (Savoie) -
- Annecy (Haute-Savoie) -

### Rivers

There are two main drainage basin in the region; some rivers in those basins are:

- Atlantic basin
    - Loire
        - Allier

- Mediterranean basin
    - Rhône
        - Saône

### Mountains

The Mont Blanc (), at , is the highest mountain of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, France, Italy and of Western Europe.

The highest points in the different departments of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region are:

|Department|Mountain|Elevation|
| --- | --- | --- |
|Ain|Crêt de la Neige||
|Allier|Puy de Montoncel||
|Ardèche|Mont Mézenc||
|Cantal|Plomb du Cantal||
|Drôme|Rocher Rond||
|Isère|Pic Lory||
|Loire|Pierre-sur-Haute||
|Haute-Loire|Mont Mézenc||
|Puy-de-Dôme|Puy de Sancy||
|Rhône|Mont Saint-Rigaud||
|Savoie|La Grande Casse||
|Haute-Savoie|Mont Blanc||

## Departments

The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region is formed by 13 departments and one territorial collectivity with the same powers as a department.

|ISO 3166-2|Shield|Department|Prefecture|Arr.|Cant.|Comm.|Population <small>(2014)</small>|Width=60px|Area <small>(km²)</small>|Density <small>(Inh./km²)</small>||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|align="center"|FR-01|align="center"||align="left"|Ain|align="left"|Bourg-en-Bresse|4|23|408|626,127|5,762.4||
|align="center"|FR-03|align="center"||align="left"|Allier|align="left"|Moulins|3|19|317|343,062|7,340.1||
|align="center"|FR-07|align="center"||align="left"|Ardèche|align="left"|Privas|3|17|339|322,381|5,528.6||
|align="center"|FR-15|align="center"||align="left"|Cantal|align="left"|Aurillac|3|15|255|146,618|5,726.0||
|align="center"|FR-26|align="center"||align="left"|Drôme|align="left"|Valence|3|19|367|499,159|6,530.0||
|align="center"|FR-38|align="center"||align="left"|Isère|align="left"|Grenoble|3|29|521|1,243,597|7,431.5||
|align="center"|FR-42|align="center"||align="left"|Loire|align="left"|Saint-Étienne|3|21|326|757,305|4,780.6||
|align="center"|FR-43|align="center"||align="left"|Haute-Loire|align="left"|Le Puy-en-Velay|3|19|257|226,565|4,977.1||
|align="center"|FR-63|align="center"||align="left"|Puy-de-Dôme|align="left"|Clermont-Ferrand|5|31|467|644,216|7,969.7||
|align="center"|FR-69|align="center"||align="left"|Rhône|align="left"|Lyon|2|13|208|474,369|2,715||
|align="center"|FR-69M|align="center"||align="left"|Lyon Metropolis|align="left"|Lyon|1|0|58|1,433,613|533.68||
|align="center"|FR-73|align="center"||align="left"|Savoie|align="left"|Chambéry|3|19|285|426,924|6,028.3||
|align="center"|FR-74|align="center"||align="left"|Haute-Savoie|align="left"|Annecy|4|17|281|783,127|4,387.8||
|align="center" colspan=4|**Total of the Region**|**39**|**242**|**4,112**|**7,820,966**|**69,711.2**|****|||||||
_Arr._ = Arrondissements          _Cant._ = Cantons          _Comm._ = Communes

## Demographics

The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region had a population, in 2014, of 7,820,966, for a population density of  inhabitants/km<sup>2</sup>. The department with more people living in it is Rhône with 1,801,885 inhabitants.

The main cities in the region are:

|INSEE code|City|Department|Population <small>(2014)</small>|
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|69123|Lyon|Métropole de Lyon|506,615|
|42218|Saint-Étienne|Loire|170,761|
|38185|Grenoble|Isère|160,779|
|69266|Villeurbanne|Métropole de Lyon|148,543|
|63113|Clermont-Ferrand|Puy-de-Dôme|141,365|
|74010|Annecy|Haute-Savoie|124,376|
|69259|Vénissieux|Métropole de Lyon|62,575|
|26362|Valence|Drôme|62,150|
|73065|Chambéry|Savoie|59,490|
|69256|Vaulx-en-Velin|Métropole de Lyon|45,294|

## Related pages

- Auvergne
- Rhône-Alpes
- Regions of France

## Other websites

- Official website of the region
- Prefecture of the region

## Infobox (settlement)

- **official name**: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
- **native name**:

- **native name lang**: fr
- **settlement type**: Regions of France, Region
- **image skyline**: Bluer than Tahoe (19705283769).jpg
- **image caption**: Lake Annecy in the French Alps
- **image flag**: Flag of the region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.svg
- **flag size**: 120px
- **image shield**: Blason Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.svg
- **image map**: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in France 2016.svg
- **subdivision type**: List of sovereign states, Country
- **seat type**: Prefectures in France, Prefecture
- **seat**: Lyon
- **parts type**: Departments of France, Departments
- **parts style**: list
- **parts**: 13 (12 normal departments, and 1 metropolis)
- **p1**: Ain
- **p2**: Allier
- **p3**: Ardèche
- **p4**: Cantal
- **p5**: Drôme
- **p6**: Haute-Loire
- **p7**: Haute-Savoie
- **p8**: Isère
- **p9**: Loire (department), Loire
- **p10**: Lyon Metropolis
- **p11**: Puy-de-Dôme
- **p12**: Rhône (department), Rhône
- **p13**: Savoie
- **leader title1**: President of the Regional Council (France), President of the Regional Council
- **leader name1**: Laurent Wauquiez (The Republicans (France), LR)
- **leader name2**: Pascal Mailhos
- **leader title2**: Prefect (France), Prefect
- **area total km2**: 69711
- **area rank**: 4th
- **population density km2**: auto
- **population demonym**: Auvergnat / Rhônalpin
Aurhalpin (rare & non-official)
- **timezone1**: Central European Time, CET
- **utc offset1**: +01:00
- **timezone1 dst**: Central European Summer Time, CEST
- **utc offset1 dst**: +02:00
- **blank name sec1**: Gross domestic product, GDP ()
- **blank info sec1**: List of French regions and overseas collectivities by GDP, Ranked
- **blank1 name sec1**: Total
- **blank1 info sec1**: $327 billion (US$ bn)
- **blank2 name sec1**: Per capita
- **blank2 info sec1**: $40,200 (US$)
- **blank name sec2**: First level NUTS of the European Union, NUTS Region
- **iso code**: FR-ARA