Drôme

**Drôme** () is a French department in southeastern France in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region and named after the Drôme river. Its prefecture is the city of Valence.

## History
Drôme is one of the 83 French departments made during the French revolution, on 4 March 1790; it was made with part of the old French province of Dauphiné. It was divided in 6 districts: Romans, Valence, Die, Buis, Montélimar,and Crest. The capital was Chabeuil but in the same year the capital was moved to Valence.

With the creation of the *arrondissements*, the 6 districts became four *arrondissements*: Valence, Die, Montélimar and Nyons. In 1926, the *arrondissement* of Montélimar was eliminated. it is on the border with the Hautes-Alpes department.

The main rivers of Drôme are:
* Rhône, in the western part of the department; in the department, it is only  long.
* Drôme river, a tributary of the Rhône.
* Isère river, another tributary of the Rhône.

### Climate
The climate of the Drôme department, in the city of Valence, is an oceanic climate, **Cfb** (Marine West Coast Climate) in the Köppen climate classification.

The average temperature for the year in Valence, 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 Valence is . The month with the most precipitation on average is September with  of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is February with an average of .

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

### Administrative divisions
There are 3 *arrondissements* (districts), 23 *cantons* and 353 *communes* (municipalities) in Drôme.

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

# Bourg-de-Péage (2601)
# Crest (2602)
# Dieulefit (2603)
# Le Diois (2604)
# Drôme des collines (2605)
# Grignan (2606)
# Loriol-sur-Drôme (2607)
# Montélimar-1 (2608)
# Montélimar-2 (2609)
# Nyons et Baronnies (2610)
# Romans-sur-Isère (2611)
# Saint-Vallier (2612)
# Tain-l'Hermitage (2613)
# Le Tricastin (2614)
# Valence-1 (2615)
# Valence-2 (2616)
# Valence-3 (2617)
# Valence-4 (2618)
# Vercors-Monts du Matin (2619)

## Demographics
The inhabitants of Drôme are known, in French, as *Drômois* (women: *Drômoises*).

Drôme has a population, in 2014, of 499,159, for a population density of  inhabitants/km2. The *arrondissement* of Valence, with 314,233 inhabitants, is by far the largest. The other two, Nyons and Die, have respectively 141,971 and 42,955 inhabitants.

The city with more people living in it is the capital, Valence (62,150 inhabitants). The subprefectures of Nyons and Die have, respectively, 6,641 and 4,516 inhabitants.

**Evolution of the population in Drôme**

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 bar:1968 from:0 till: 342891
 bar:1975 from:0 till: 361847
 bar:1982 from:0 till: 389781
 bar:1990 from:0 till: 414072
 bar:1999 from:0 till: 437778
 bar:2006 from:0 till: 468367
 bar:2014 from:0 till: 499159

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 bar:1975 at: 361847 fontsize:S text: 361,847 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:1982 at: 389781 fontsize:S text: 389,781 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:1990 at: 414072 fontsize:S text: 414,072 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:1999 at: 437778 fontsize:S text: 437,778 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:2006 at: 468367 fontsize:S text: 468,367 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:2014 at: 499159 fontsize:S text: 499,159 shift:(-18,5)

The 10 most important cities in the department are:

## Gallery

File:Valence cathedrale 2003-12-10 047.jpg|Valence cathedral.
File:Dielavan.jpg|Lavender fields near Die.
File:France Provence Grignan castle château.JPG|Grignan town and castle.
File:Château de Suze la Rousse, Drôme, France-2005-10-23.jpg|Castle of Suze la Rousse.
File:Montaulieu en Drôme provençale.JPG|Montaulieu in *Drôme provençale*.
File:Vercors Glandasse.jpg|*Vercors* Plateau.

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

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