Gard

**Gard** is a French department in southern France in the Occitanie region and named after the Gardon river. Its prefecture is Nîmes.

## History
Gard is one of the 83 French departments made during the French revolution, on 4 March 1790. It was divided in 8 districts: Alais, Beaucaire, Nîmes, Pont-Saint-Esprit, Saint-Hippolyte, Sommières, Uzès and Le Vigan. The capital was Nîmes alternating with Alais and Uzès. In 1794, Nîmes became the only capital.

With the creation of the *arrondissements*, the 8 districts became four *arrondissements*: Nîmes, Alais, Uzès and Le Vigan. In 1926, the *arrondissement* of Uzès was eliminated.

There are 4 natural regions in Gard:
# The **Cévennes**, a mountain chain that is part of the Massif Central. It is between the Lozère and Gard departments.
# The **Garrigues**, a natural region found in the Hérault and Gard departments. It is formed by hills and plateaus of limestone.
# The **Costières**, a natural region of the Gard department found to the south of Nîmes.
# The ***low region*** formed by the plains of the Rhone river and those along the coast.

The highest point in the department is *Mont Aigoual*, () that is  high it is in the *Cévennes* mountains, on the border with the Lozère department.

The main river of Gard is the Gardon (or *Gard*), a right tributary of the Rhone. The Rhone flows through the eastern border of the department.

### Climate
The climate of the Gard department, in the city of Nîmes, is subtropical with dry-summer, **Csa** (Mediterranean Climate) in the Köppen climate classification.

The average temperature for the year in Nîmes, at an altitude of ,  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 .

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

## Administration
Gard is part of the region of Occitanie. The department is managed by the *Departamental Council of the Gard* in Nîmes.

### Administrative divisions
There are 3 *arrondissements* (districts), 23 *cantons* and 353 *communes* (municipalities) in Gard.

The following is a list of the 23 cantons of the Gard department (with their INSEE codes), in France, following the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015:

# Aigues-Mortes (3001)
# Alès-1 (3002)
# Alès-2 (3003)
# Alès-3 (3004)
# Bagnols-sur-Cèze (3005)
# Beaucaire (3006)
# Calvisson (3007)
# La Grand-Combe (3008)
# Marguerittes (3009)
# Nîmes-1 (3010)
# Nîmes-2 (3011)
# Nîmes-3 (3012)
# Nîmes-4 (3013)
# Pont-Saint-Esprit (3014)
# Quissac (3015)
# Redessan (3016)
# Roquemaure (3017)
# Rousson (3018)
# Saint-Gilles (3019)
# Uzès (3020)
# Vauvert (3021)
# Le Vigan (3022)
# Villeneuve-lès-Avignon (3023)

## Demographics
The inhabitants of Gard are known, in French, as *Gardois* (women: *Gardoises*).

Gard has a population, in 2014, of 736,029, for a population density of  inhabitants/km2. The *arrondissement* of Nîmes, with 547,598 inhabitants, is by far the largest. The other two, Alès and Le Vigan, have respectively 151,823 and 36,608 inhabitants.

The city with more people living in it is the capital, Nîmes (151,075). The subprefectures of Alès and Le Vigan have, respectively, 39,993 and 3,933 inhabitants.

**Evolution of the population in Aude**

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 bar:2014 at: 736029 fontsize:S text: 736,029 shift:(-18,5)

The 10 most important cities in the department are:

## Gallery

File:Arenes de Nimes panorama.jpg|Arena of Nîmes
File:Pont du Gard 004.jpg|*Pont du Gard* bridge
File:Chateau d'Uzès 12.JPG|Uzès
File:Cascades Sautadet.jpg|Sautadets Waterfalls on the Cèze river

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

## References
## Other websites
* Departamental Council website 
* Prefecture website  
* Région Occitanie