Pyrénées-Atlantiques

**Pyrénées-Atlantiques** (Gascon: *Pirenèus-Atlantics*;  or ) is a department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of France. It takes its name from the Pyrenees mountains and the Atlantic Ocean.

## History
Pyrénées-Atlantiques is one of the 83 French departments made during the French revolution, on 4 March 1790, with the name of **Basses-Pyrénées**. It was created from parts of the old provinces of Guyenne, Béarn, and Gascony.

The new department had six districts: Mauléon, Oloron, Orthez, Pau, Saint- Palais and Ustaritz.

The first prefecture was Navarrenx but then it was moved to Pau; in 1795, the prefecture was moved to Saint-Palais but in 1796 it was returned to Pau.

On 10 October 1969, the name of the department was changed from *Basses-Pyrénées* to *Pyrénées-Atlantiques*.

The main river of the department is the Adour and all rivers in the department, except for some coastal small rivers, flow into this river. Other important rivers are the Gaves réunis, formed by the rivers Gave d'Oloron and Gave de Pau, and the Nive.

### Climate
The climate of Pau is Marine West Coast Climate (Köppen climate classification *Cfb*), with mild winters and warm summers.

The average temperature for the year in Pau is 13.5&nbsp;°C (56.3&nbsp;°F). The warmest month, on average, is July with an average temperature of 20.7&nbsp;°C (69.3&nbsp;°F). The coolest month on average is January, with an average temperature of 6.6&nbsp;°C (43.9&nbsp;°F).

The average amount of precipitation for the year in Pau is . The month with the most precipitation on average is December with  of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is February with an average of .

The following is a list of the 27 cantons of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, following the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015:

# Anglet (6401)
# Artix et Pays de Soubestre (6402)
# Baïgura et Mondarrain (6403)
# Bayonne-1 (6404)
# Bayonne-2 (6405)
# Bayonne-3 (6406)
# Biarritz (6407)
# Billère et Coteaux de Jurançon (6408)
# Le Cœur de Béarn (6409)
# Hendaye-Côte Basque-Sud (6410)
# Lescar, Gave et Terres du Pont-Long (6411)
# Montagne Basque (6412)
# Nive-Adour (6413)
# Oloron-Sainte-Marie-1 (6414)
# Oloron-Sainte-Marie-2 (6415)
# Orthez et Terres des Gaves et du Sel (6416)
# Ouzom, Gave et Rives du Neez (6417)
# Pau-1 (6418)
# Pau-2 (6419)
# Pau-3 (6420)
# Pau-4 (6421)
# Pays de Bidache, Amikuze et Ostibarre (6422)
# Pays de Morlaàs et du Montanérès (6423)
# Saint-Jean-de-Luz (6424)
# Terres des Luys et Coteaux du Vic-Bilh (6425)
# Ustaritz-Vallées de Nive et Nivelle (6426)
# Vallées de l'Ousse et du Lagoin (6427)

## Demographics
The inhabitants of Pyrénées-Atlantiques are known, in French, as *Basques et Béarnais* (women: *Basques et Béarnaises*). The Basques live mainly in the western part of the department and the Béarnais in the eastern part. From 1790 to 1969, before the change of the name of the department, the inhabitants of this departmente were known as *Bas-Pyrénéens*.

The Pyrénées-Atlantiques has a population, in 2014, of 667,249, for a population density of  inhabitants/km2. The *arrondissement* of Pau, with 305,089 inhabitants, is by far the largest. The other two, Bayonne and Oloron-Sainte-Marie, have respectively 287,546 and 74,614 inhabitants.

**Evolution of the population in Pyrénées-Atlantiques**

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The city with more people living in it is the capital, Pau, with 77,489 inhabitants, the  of the total population of the department. The subprefectures of Bayonne and Oloron-Sainte-Marie have, respectively, 48,178 inhabitants () and 10,824 inhabitants ().

The main cities in the department are:
 River]]

## Gallery

File:Villa belza.jpg|Villa Belza in Biarritz
File:Gentau Pic du Midi Ossau.jpg|Lac Gentau
File:Gave Aspe Oloron-Sainte-Marie.jpg|Oloron-Sainte-Marie
File:Ainhoa, Pyrénées-Atlantiques.jpg|Ainhoa
File:Château de Pau 01.JPG|Château de Pau

## Related pages
* Arrondissements of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department
* Communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department

## References
## Other websites
* General Council of Pyrénées-Atlantiques  
* Prefecture official website