Nièvre

**Nièvre** is a department in the centre of France, in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region. It is named after the Nièvre river, a tributary of the Loire. Its prefecture and largest city is Nevers.

## History
Nièvre is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790 with Nevers as its capital. It was formed from part of the old province of *Nivernais* and its name was written at first as **Nyèvre**.

It was divided in nine districts: Nevers, Saint-Pierre-le-Moutier, Decize, Moulins-Engilbert, Château-Chinon, Corbigny, Clamecy, Cosne and La Charité.

In 1800, with the creation of the *arrondissements* in France, the nine districts were changed into four *arrondissements*: Nevers, Château-Chinon, Clamecy and Cosne.

On 10 September 1926, the *arrondissement* of Cosne was eliminated but in 1943 it became again an *arrondissement* of the department. it is in the *commune* Glux-en-Glenne.

The department borders with six departments in three regions:
* Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region
** Yonne (north)
** Côte-d'Or (east)
** Saône-et-Loire (southeast)
* Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region
** Allier (southwest)
* Centre-Val de Loire region
** Cher (west)
** Loiret (nortwest)

There are three main geographical zones in the department:
# Eastern zone, with small hills covered with forests; here is the *Parc Naturel Régional du Morvan* ("Morvan regional natural park").
# Central zone, an agricultural zone.
# Western zone, a zone organised along a north-south line formed by the valley of the Loire river; it is the zone of the department with higher population.

The main rivers in the department are the Loire, that makes most of the western border, with its tributaries Allier and Aron; and the Yonne, with its tributary Cure.

### Climate
The Köppen climate classification type for the climate at Nevers is an "Oceanic climate" (also known as Maritime Temperate climate) and of the subtype "Cfb".

It rains in all seasons but precipitations are more important in the eastern zone, in the Morvan, and weaker in the Loire valley.

## Administration
Nièvre is managed by the *Departmental Council of Nièvre* in Nevers. The department is part of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region.

### Administrative divisions
There are 4 *arrondissements* (districts), 17 *cantons* and 309 *communes* (municipalities) in Nièvre.

The following is a list of the 17 cantons of the Nièvre department (with their INSEE codes), following the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015:

# La Charité-sur-Loire (5801)
# Château-Chinon (5802)
# Clamecy (5803)
# Corbigny (5804)
# Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire (5805)
# Decize (5806)
# Fourchambault (5807)
# Guérigny (5808)
# Imphy (5809)
# Luzy (5810)
# Nevers-1 (5811)
# Nevers-2 (5812)
# Nevers-3 (5813)
# Nevers-4 (5814)
# Pouilly-sur-Loire (5815)
# Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier (5816)
# Varennes-Vauzelles (5817)

## Demographics
The inhabitants of Nièvre are known, in French, as *Nivernais* (women: *Nivernaises*).

Nièvre had a population, in 2014, of 213,569, for a population density of  inhabitants/km2. The *arrondissement* of Nevers, with 118,087 inhabitants, is the *arrondissement* with more inhabitants.

**Evolution of the population in Nièvre**

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:300000
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical
AlignBars = justify
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:50000 start:0
ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:25000 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:2006 text:2006
 bar:2014 text:2014

PlotData=
 color:barra width:30 align:left

 bar:1968 from:0 till: 247702
 bar:1975 from:0 till: 245212
 bar:1982 from:0 till: 239635
 bar:1990 from:0 till: 233278
 bar:1999 from:0 till: 225198
 bar:2006 from:0 till: 222220
 bar:2014 from:0 till: 213569

PlotData=
 bar:1968 at: 247702 fontsize:S text: 247,702 shift:(-13,5)
 bar:1975 at: 245212 fontsize:S text: 245,212 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:1982 at: 239635 fontsize:S text: 239,635 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:1990 at: 233278 fontsize:S text: 233,278 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:1999 at: 225198 fontsize:S text: 225,198 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:2006 at: 222220 fontsize:S text: 222,220 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:2014 at: 213569 fontsize:S text: 213,569 shift:(-18,5)

The 10 *communes* with more inhabitants in the department are:

## Gallery

File:F06.Nevers.Palais Ducal.1161.JPG|Ducal Palace in Nevers
File:2012-07-21 20-23-03 3-33 3-49 4-03 4-12 4-23 4-34-PA00112826-La Charité sur Loire ShiftN.jpg|Notre-Dame of La Charité-sur-Loire
File:Chateau-de-Villemolin-0484.jpg|*Château de Villemolin*, Anthien
File:Abbaye St Leonard a Corbigny DSC 0414.jpg|Abbey of Corbigny
File:Château-Chinon (vue depuis Dommartin).jpg|Château-Chinon (Ville): view from Dommartin
File:Loire, Cosne-sur-Loire, verkeersbrug.JPG|Bridge over the Loire, at Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire

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

## References
## Other websites
* Departmental Council website 
* Prefecture website 
* Agence de Développement Touristique de la Nièvre