Charente

**Charente** (Saintongeais: *Chérente*, ) is a department in southwestern France, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.

It is named after the Charente river, the most important river in the department. The two largest towns of the department, Angoulême and Cognac, are along this river.

## History
Charente is one of the 83 French departments made during the French revolution, on 4 March 1790. It was created from the old province of *Angoumois* with lands around Angoulême.

The new department had six districts: Ruffec, Confolens, La Rochefoucauld, Angoulême, Barbezieux and Cognac. The capital (now prefecture) was Angoulême.

In 1800, with the creation of the *arrondissements* in France, the six districts were changed into five *arrondissements*: Angoulême, Barbezieux, Cognac, Confolens and Ruffec.

The average amount of precipitation for the year in Cognac is . The month with the most precipitation on average is November with  of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is July with an average of .

The average temperature for the year in Cognac is . The warmest month, on average, is July with an average temperature of . The coolest month on average is January, with an average temperature of .

## Administration
The department is managed by the *Departmental Council of the Charente* in Angoulême. Charente is part of the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine.

### Administrative divisions
There are 3 *arrondissements* (districts), 19 *cantons* and 383 *communes* (municipalities) in Charente.

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

# Angoulême-1 (1601)
# Angoulême-2 (1602)
# Angoulême-3 (1603)
# Boëme-Échelle (1604)
# Boixe-et-Manslois (1605)
# Charente-Bonnieure (1606)
# Charente-Champagne (1607)
# Charente-Nord (1608)
# Charente-Sud (1609)
# Charente-Vienne (1610)
# Cognac-1 (1611)
# Cognac-2 (1612)
# La Couronne (1613)
# Gond-Pontouvre (1614)
# Jarnac (1615)
# Touvre-et-Braconne (1616)
# Tude-et-Lavalette (1617)
# Val de Nouère (1618)
# Val de Tardoire (1619)

## Demographics
The inhabitants of Charente are known, in French, as *Charentais* (women: *Charentaises*).

Charente has a population, in 2014, of 353,853, for a population density of  inhabitants/km2. The *arrondissement* of Angoulême, with 197,377 inhabitants, is by far the largest. The other two, Cognac and Confolens, have respectively 92,224 and 64,252 inhabitants.

**Evolution of the population in Charente-Maritime**

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 bar:1968 from:0 till: 331016
 bar:1975 from:0 till: 337064
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 bar:1975 at: 337064 fontsize:S text: 337,064 shift:(-18,5)
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 bar:1990 at: 341993 fontsize:S text: 341,993 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:1999 at: 339628 fontsize:S text: 339,628 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:2008 at: 351581 fontsize:S text: 351,581 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:2014 at: 353853 fontsize:S text: 353,853 shift:(-18,5)

The 10 main cities in the department are:

## Economy
The **cognac** is an alcoholic drink, a kind of brandy. It is made from grapes. It is made mainly around the city of Cognac.

## Gallery

Angouleme cathedral StPierre ac.JPG|Angoulême Cathedral
Ang lhoum charente.JPG|The Charente river in Angoulême
La Couronne Abbaye2010.jpg|Abbey of La Couronne
Plassac-Rouffiac église 2012.jpg|Plassac-Rouffiac

## Related pages
* Arrondissements of the Charente department
* Communes of the Charente department

## References
## Other websites
* Departmental Council website 
* Prefecture website