Cantal

**Cantal** is a French department in south-central France in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Its prefecture is Aurillac.

It is named after the Mounts of Cantal, a group of mountains in the Massif Central.

## History
Cantal is one of the 83 French departments made during the French revolution, on 4 March 1790. It was created with part of the territory of the old province of Auvergne in south central France. It was divided in four districts: Aurillac, Mauriac, Murat and Saint-Flour; its capital in Saint-Flour, alternating with Aurillac.

In 1794, Saint-Flour became the only capital but, in 1795, the capital was moved to Aurillac.

In 1800, with the creation of the *arrondissements* in France, the districts were changed into *arrondissements*: Aurillac, Mauriac, Murat and Saint-Flour. On 10 September 1926, the *arrondissement* of Murat was eliminated. Other high mountains near Plomb du Cantal in the Cantal department are:
* *Puy du Rocher* (),  high;
* *Puy de Peyre Arse* (),  high; and
* *Puy Mary* (),  high.

The lowest point of the department, , is in the valley of the Lot river where it leaves the department.

The main rivers are the Alagnon, a tributary to the Allier; the Célé and Truyère rivers, tributaries to the Lot river; and the Cère and Rhue rivers, tributaries to the Dordogne river.

### Climate
The climate of Cantal has with few extremes of temperature and ample precipitation in all months. It belongs to the subtype **Cfb** (Marine West Coast Climate) in the Köppen climate classification.

The average temperature for the year in Aurillac, 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 Aurillac is . The month with the most precipitation on average is December with  of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is June with an average of .

## Administration
Cantal is part of the region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The department is managed by the *Departamental Council of the Cantal* in Aurillac.

### Administrative divisions
There are 3 *arrondissements* (districts), 15 *cantons* and 255 *communes* (municipalities) in Cantal.

File:Aurillac - Préfecture 20130802-02.JPG|Prefecture of Cantal in Aurillac.
File:Mauriac1.jpg|Mauriac from the Val Saint Jean lake.
File:Saint Flour-Ville haute.jpg|Saint-Flour upper town.

The following is a list of the 15 cantons of the Cantal department (with their INSEE codes),

# Arpajon-sur-Cère (1501)
# Aurillac-1 (1502)
# Aurillac-2 (1503)
# Causses-Rougiers (1504)
# Mauriac (1505)
# Maurs (1506)
# Murat (1507)
# Naucelles (1508)
# Neuvéglise (1509)
# Riom-ès-Montagnes (1510)
# Saint-Flour-1 (1511)
# Saint-Flour-2 (15012)
# Saint-Paul-des-Landes (15013)
# Vic-sur-Cère (1514)
# Ydes (1514)

## Demographics
The inhabitants of Cantal are known, in French, as *Cantaliens* (women: *Cantaliennes*) or *Cantalous* (women: *Cantalouses*).

Cantal has a population, in 2014, of 146,618, for a population density of  inhabitants/km2. The *arrondissement* of Aurillac, with 82,347 inhabitants, is by far the largest. The other two, Saint-Flour and Mauriac, have respectively 38,079 and 26,192 inhabitants.

The city with more people living in it is the capital, Aurillac (26,135). The subprefectures of Saint-Flour and Mauriac have, respectively, 6,643 and 3,682 inhabitants.

**Evolution of the population in Cantal**

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 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

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 bar:1968 from:0 till: 169330
 bar:1975 from:0 till: 166549
 bar:1982 from:0 till: 162838
 bar:1990 from:0 till: 158723
 bar:1999 from:0 till: 150778
 bar:2008 from:0 till: 148737
 bar:2014 from:0 till: 146618

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 bar:1968 at: 169330 fontsize:S text: 169,330 shift:(-12,5)
 bar:1975 at: 166549 fontsize:S text: 166,549 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:1982 at: 162838 fontsize:S text: 162,838 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:1990 at: 158723 fontsize:S text: 158,723 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:1999 at: 150778 fontsize:S text: 150,778 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:2008 at: 148737 fontsize:S text: 148,737 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:2014 at: 146618 fontsize:S text: 146,618 shift:(-18,5)

The 10 most important cities in the department are:

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

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