Hérault

Herault () is a department in the region of Occitanie in southern France. It is named after the Herault river.
The inhabitants of Herault are known, in French, as Heraultais (women: Heraultaises).
History
Herault was created in 1790 during the French Revolution, when the whole of France was divided into departments, replacing the old provinces. Aude was formed with part of the old province of Languedoc.
It was divided in four districts: Montpellier, Beziers, Lodeve and Saint-Pons, with Montpellier as is capital.
In 1800, with the creation of the arrondissements in France, the four districts were changed into four arrondissements. On 10 September 1926, the arrondissements of Lodeve and Saint-Pons were eliminated but on 1 June 1942 Lodeve became again an arrondissement.
Geography
Herault has an area of . It is surrounded by the departments of Aude, Aveyron, Tarn, and Gard, with the Gulf of Lion (Mediterranean Sea) to the east and southeast.
The main rivers in the department are the Orb and the Herault which gives its name to the department.
Climate
The climate in Montpellier, in the northeast of the department near the Mediterranean coast, is a Mediterranean climate, a "dry-summer subtropical" climate, Csa in the Koppen climate classification.
The average amount of precipitation for the year in Montpellier is . The month with the most precipitation on average is October with of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is July with an average of . There are an average of 73.4 days of precipitation, with the most precipitation occurring in December with 9.2 days and the least precipitation occurring in July with 2.3 days.
The average temperature for the year in Montpellier 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 .
Administration
The departement is managed by the Departamental Council of the Herault in Montpellier. Herault is part of the region of Occitanie.
Administrative divisions
There are 3 arrondissements (districts), 25 cantons and 343 communes (municipalities) in Herault.
The following is a list of the 25 cantons of the Herault department (with their INSEE codes), following the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015:
Agde (3401)
Beziers-1 (3402)
Beziers-2 (3403)
Beziers-3 (3404)
Cazouls-les-Beziers (3405)
Clermont-l'Herault (3406)
Le Cres (3407)
Frontignan (3408)
Gignac (3409)
Lattes (3410)
Lodeve (3411)
Lunel (3412)
Mauguio (3413)
Meze (3414)
Montpellier-1 (3415)
Montpellier-2 (3416)
Montpellier-3 (3417)
Montpellier-4 (3418)
Montpellier-5 (3419)
Montpellier - Castelnau-le-Lez (3420)
Pezenas (3421)
Pignan (3422)
Saint-Gely-du-Fesc (3423)
Saint-Pons-de-Thomieres (3424)
Sete (3425)
Demographics
The Herault department has a population, in 2014, of 1,107,398, for a population density of inhabitants/km2. The arrondissement of Montpellier, with 700,241 inhabitants, is by far the largest. The other two arrondissements, Beziers and Lodeve, have respectively 312,443 and 94,714 inhabitants.
Evolution of the population in Herault
The communes in the department with more of 10,000 inhabitants are:
Gallery
Related pages
Arrondissements of the Herault department
Communes of the Herault department
References
Other websites
Departamental council website
Prefecture website
The Herault Tourist Board
Herault