Loire (department)

**Loire** () is a French department in the east-central part of France in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region and named after the Loire river. Its prefecture is the city of Saint-Étienne.

## History
Rhône-et-Loire was one French departments made during the French revolution, on 4 March 1790. The department was divided in two departments in 1793: Rhône and Loire. The department of Loire had three districts: Montbrison, Roanne and Saint-Étienne. The capital was Feurs but in 1795 the capital was moved to Montbrison.

With the creation of the *arrondissements*, the three districts became three *arrondissements*: Montbrison, Roanne and Saint-Étienne. and is on the border with the Puy-de-Dôme department.
* **Monts de la Madeleine**, to the north of the *Monts du Forez* and form the limit between the Loire and the Allier departments.
* **Monts du Lyonnais** form the eastern limit of the Loire department.
* **Pilat**, a short chain that is in the Loire department but borders with other 4 departments: Rhône, Isère, Ardèche and Haute-Loire.

The main rivers of Loire are:
* Loire, that gives its name to the department and flows through the department from southwest to northeast for a distance of .
* Rhône, in the southeast of the department.

### Climate
The climate of the Loire department, in the city of Andrézieux-Bouthéon (near Saint-Étienne and where is the Saint-Étienne-Loire Airport), is an oceanic climate, **Cfb** (Marine West Coast Climate) in the Köppen climate classification.

The average temperature for the year in Andrézieux-Bouthéon, 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 Andrézieux-Bouthéon is . The month with the most precipitation on average is December with  of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is April with an average of .

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

### Administrative divisions
There are 3 *arrondissements* (districts), 21 *cantons* and 326 *communes* (municipalities) in Loire.

The following is a list of the 21 cantons of the Loire department (with their INSEE codes), in France, following the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015:

# Andrézieux-Bouthéon (4201)
# Boën-sur-Lignon (4202)
# Charlieu (4203)
# Le Coteau (4204)
# Feurs (4205)
# Firminy (4206)
# Montbrison (4207)
# Le Pilat (4208)
# Renaison (4209)
# Rive-de-Gier (4210)
# Roanne-1 (4211)
# Roanne-2 (4212)
# Saint-Chamond (4213)
# Saint-Étienne-1 (4214)
# Saint-Étienne-2 (4215)
# Saint-Étienne-3 (4216)
# Saint-Étienne-4 (4217)
# Saint-Étienne-5 (4218)
# Saint-Étienne-6 (4219)
# Saint-Just-Saint-Rambert (4220)
# Sorbiers (4221)

## Demographics
The inhabitants of Loire are known, in French, as *Ligériens* (women: *Ligériennes*). *Ligérien* comes from *Liger*, the Latin name of the Loire river.

Loire has a population, in 2014, of 757,305, for a population density of  inhabitants/km2. The *arrondissement* of Saint-Étienne, with 411,402 inhabitants, is by far the largest. The other two, Montbrison and Roanne, have respectively 188,635 and 157,268 inhabitants.

The city with more people living in it is the capital, Saint-Étienne (170,761 inhabitants). The subprefectures of Roanne and Montbrison have, respectively, 35,200 and 15,689 inhabitants.

**Evolution of the population in Loire**

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 bar:1968 from:0 till: 722443
 bar:1975 from:0 till: 742396
 bar:1982 from:0 till: 739521
 bar:1990 from:0 till: 746288
 bar:1999 from:0 till: 728524
 bar:2008 from:0 till: 742076
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 bar:1975 at: 742396 fontsize:S text: 742,396 shift:(-18,5)
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 bar:1990 at: 746288 fontsize:S text: 746,288 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:1999 at: 728524 fontsize:S text: 728,524 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:2008 at: 742076 fontsize:S text: 742,076 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:2014 at: 757305 fontsize:S text: 757,305 shift:(-18,5)

The most important cities in the department are:

## Gallery

File:Tour de la Droguerie1.jpg|Saint-Étienne.
File:Chateau La Roche St Priest.jpg|*Château de La Roche*, Saint-Priest-la-Roche.
File:Chateau de Grangent.jpg|*Château de Grangent*, Saint-Just-Saint-Rambert.
File:Champdieu prieure.jpg|Church of Champdieu.
File:Ste Croix en Jarez-1a Façade Sud.jpg|Sainte-Croix-en-Jarez.

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

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