Allier

**Allier** is a department in the centre of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. It is named after the river Allier, a tributary of the Loire. Its prefecture is Moulins.

## History
Allier is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790 with Moulins as its capital. It was formed from most of all the former province of *Bourbonnais* (the Duchy of Bourbonnais); Saint-Amand-Montrond, in the Cher department, was the only part of the old province that was not made part of Allier.

It was divided in seven districts: Cérilly, Moulins, Le Donjon, Cusset, Gannat, Montmarault and Montluçon.

In 1800, with the creation of the *arrondissements* in France, the seven districts were changed into four *arrondissements*: Moulins, Gannat, Lapalisse and Montluçon.

The department borders with 6 other departments in 4 regions:
* Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region
** Nièvre (north)
** Saône-et-Loire (east)
* Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region
** Loire (southeast)
** Puy-de-Dôme (south)
* Nouvelle-Aquitaine region
** Creuse (west)
* Centre-Val de Loire region
** Cher (northwest)

There are four main geographical zones in the department:
# The **Bourbonnais Bocage** covers about one third of the departement, covering most of the western and central parts of the department. 
# The **Bourbonnais Sologne** is to the east of the department, between the valley of the river Allier and the borders of Nièvre and Saône-et-Loire departments in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.
# The **Bourbonnais Mountains** are in the southeast of the department. In these mountains, where the departments Allier, Puy-de-Dome and Loire meet, is the highest point of the department, Puy de Montoncel (); it is  high.
# The **Bourbonnais Limagne**, commonly called as ''Val d'Allier* ("Valley of the Allier"), found on both sides of the river between Vichy and Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule.

The main rivers in the department are:
* Cher in the western part of the department.
* Allier and its tributary the Sioule, in the centre.
* Loire and its tributary the Besbre, in the east.

### 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".

There are two periods of maximum precipitation in June and October and a minimum in January and February with average of  Montluçon (altitude: 207 m),  in Moulins (245 m)  in Vichy (251 m); and  in Lapalisse (285 m).

## Administration
Allier is managed by the *Departmental Council of Allier* in Moulins. The department is part of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.

### Administrative divisions
There are 3 *arrondissements* (districts), 19 *cantons* and 317 *communes'' (municipalities) in Allier.

The following is a list of the 19 cantons of the **Allier** department (with their INSEE codes), following the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015:

# Bellerive-sur-Allier (0301)
# Bourbon-l'Archambault (0302)
# Commentry (0303)
# Cusset (0304)
# Dompierre-sur-Besbre (0305)
# Gannat (0306)
# Huriel (0307)
# Lapalisse (0308)
# Montluçon-1 (0309)
# Montluçon-2 (0310)
# Montluçon-3 (0311)
# Montluçon-4 (0312)
# Moulins-1 (0313)
# Moulins-2 (0314)
# Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule (0315)
# Souvigny (0316)
# Vichy-1 (0317)
# Vichy-2 (0318)
# Yzeure (0319)

## Demographics
There is not a traditional demonym to name the inhabitants of the Allier department. Some names used are *Alliérins*, *Bourbonnais*, *Elavérins*, or simply ''habitants de l'Allier* ("inhabitants of Allier").

Of these names, the most used is *Bourbonnais* followed by *habitants de l'Allier*.

Allier had a population, in 2014, of 343,062, for a population density of  inhabitants/km2. The *arrondissement* of Vichy, with 122,267 inhabitants, is the *arrondissement* with more inhabitants.

**Evolution of the population in Allier**

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  bar:1975 from:0 till: 378406
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 bar:1999 at: 344721 fontsize:S text: 344,721 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:2006 at: 343310 fontsize:S text: 343,310 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:2014 at: 343062 fontsize:S text: 343,062 shift:(-18,8)

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

## Gallery

Château des ducs de Bourbon à Montluçon en juillet 2014 - 03.jpg|Castle of the Dukes of Bourbon in Montluçon
FR-03-Moulins02.JPG|Moulins, the capital of the *Bourbonnais*.
Moulins - Perspective3.JPG|Moulins
Place de la republique Vichy 2006.jpg|*La place de la République'', Vichy

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

## References
## Other websites
* General Council website 
* Prefecture website  
* Allier tourism