Landes

**Landes** (Gascon: *Lanas*) is a department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of France. Landes is the plural of the French word *lande* (in English:*heathland*); it was named so because it was the most common habitat in the region.

It is well known for the ''Côte d'Argent* beach that attracts many surfers to Mimizan and Hossegor each year.

## History
The department was formed during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790 with parts of the old provinces of Guyenne and Gascony. It was divided into four districts: Dax, Mont-de-Marsan, Saint-Sever and Tartas. The capital was Mont-de-Marsan.

The *arrondissement* of Dax, Mont-de-Marsan and Saint-Sever were established on 17 February 1800. The *arrondissement* of Saint-Sever was dissolved on 10 September 1926 and integrated into the *arrondissements* of Dax and Mont-de-Marsan.

## Geography
Landes is part of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, southwestern France, and is, after Gironde, the second largest department of Metropolitan France with an area of .

The forest of Landes is the largest forest in France. It covers about 67% of the department in its northern part, and also covers a large part of the Gironde and Lot-et-Garonne (arrondissement of Nérac). The main species of tree is the maritime pine (*Pinus pinaster*).

### Climate 
The climate in Mont-de-Marsan is Marine West Coast Climate (Köppen climate classification ***Cfb**''), with mild winters and warm summers.

The average temperature for the year in Mont-de-Marsan 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 Mont-de-Marsan is . The month with the most precipitation on average is October with  of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is August with an average of .

The following is a list of the 15 cantons of the **Landes** department (with their INSEE codes), following the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015:

# Adour Armagnac (4001)
# Chalosse Tursan (4002)
# Côte d'Argent (4003)
# Coteau de Chalosse (4004)
# Dax-1 (4005)
# Dax-2 (4006)
# Grands Lacs (4007)
# Haute Lande Armagnac (4008)
# Marensin Sud (4009)
# Mont-de-Marsan-1 (4010)
# Mont-de-Marsan-2 (4011)
# Orthe et Arrigans (4012)
# Pays morcenais tarusate (4013)
# Pays Tyrossais (4014)
# Seignanx (4015)

## Demographics
The inhabitants of Landes are known, in French, as *Landais* (women: *Landaises*).

The department of Landes has a population, in 2014, of 400,477, for a population density of  inhabitants/km2. The *arrondissement* of Dax has 220,656 inhabitants and the *arrondissement* of Mont-de-Marsan, where is the prefecture of the departement, has only 179,821 inhabitants.

**Evolution of the population in Landes**

Colors=
  id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9)
  id:darkgrey  value:gray(0.7)
  id:sfondo value:rgb(1,1,1)
  id:barra value:rgb(0.6,0.7,0.8)

ImageSize = width:500 height:373
PlotArea = left:50 bottom:30 top:30 right:30
DateFormat = x.y
Period = from:0 till:450000
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical
AlignBars = justify
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:100000 start:0
ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:50000 start:0
BackgroundColors = canvas:sfondo

BarData=
 bar:1968 text:1968
 bar:1975 text:1975
 bar:1982 text:1982
 bar:1990 text:1990
 bar:1999 text:1999
 bar:2008 text:2008
 bar:2014 text:2014

PlotData=
 color:barra width:30 align:left

 bar:1968 from:0 till: 277381
 bar:1975 from:0 till: 288323
 bar:1982 from:0 till: 297424
 bar:1990 from:0 till: 311461
 bar:1999 from:0 till: 327334
 bar:2008 from:0 till: 373142
 bar:2014 from:0 till: 400477

PlotData=
 bar:1968 at: 277381 fontsize:S text: 277,381 shift:(-13,5)
 bar:1975 at: 288323 fontsize:S text: 288,323 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:1982 at: 297424 fontsize:S text: 297,424 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:1990 at: 311461 fontsize:S text: 311,461 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:1999 at: 327334 fontsize:S text: 327,334 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:2008 at: 373142 fontsize:S text: 373,142 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:2014 at: 400477 fontsize:S text: 400,477 shift:(-18,5)

The 10 main cities in the department are:

## Gallery

File:Confluent Mont de Marsan.JPG|Mont-de-Marsan
File:Hossegor 2008 (3).jpg|Surfer in Hossegor
File:Messanges 079.jpg|Beach near Messanges
File:Labastide9.JPG|Labastide-d'Armagnac
File:ForetLandes.JPG|Landes forest, the largest maritime-pine forest in Europe

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

## References
## Other websites
* Departmental Council of Landes  
* Prefecture official website