Haute-Garonne

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Haute-Garonne

Coat of arms of the Haute-Garonne department
Location

Administration
Department number:	31
Region:	Midi-Pyrénées
Prefecture:	Toulouse
Subprefectures:	Saint-Gaudens Muret
Arrondissements:	3
Cantons:	53
Communes:	588
President of the General Council:	Pierre Izard
Statistics
Population	Ranked 17th
-Jan.1, 2006 estimate -March 8, 1999 census	1,169,497 1,046,338
Population density:	185/km²
Land area¹:	6,309 km²

¹ French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km².

Haute-Garonne (Occitan: Nauta Garona; English: Upper Garonne) is a department in the southwest of France named after the Garonne river. Its main city is Toulouse.

1 History
2 Geography
3 Demographics
4 Winter Sports
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] History

Haute-Garonne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Languedoc.

[edit] Geography

Haute-Garonne is part of the current region of Midi-Pyrénées and is surrounded by the departments of Hautes-Pyrénées, Gers, Tarn-et-Garonne, Tarn, Aude, and Ariège. It also borders Spain in the south (province of Lleida and province of Huesca).

The department is crossed by the upper course of the Garonne River (hence the name) for nearly 200 kilometers (125 miles). The borders of the department follow the river. The Garonne enters France from Spain at the town of Fos, goes through Toulouse and leaves the department The extreme south of the department lies in the Pyrenees mountain range and is very mountainous. The highest elevation is the Peak of Perdiguère, at 3,222 meters (10,571 ft) above sea level.

[edit] Demographics

The inhabitants of the department are called Haut-Garonnais. The greatest population concentration is around Toulouse. The south of the department is quite sparsely populated. More than a million people inhabited the department at the last census in 1999. Young people are well represented with 55% of the population under the age of 40 and of those, 16% are between the ages of 20 and 29. This is because Toulouse is a university town.

The largest towns are :

Commune	Population (1999)	Commune	Population (1999)
Toulouse	390 350	Colomiers	28 538
Tournefeuille	22 758	Muret	20 735
Blagnac	20 586	Plaisance-du-Touch	14 164
Cugnaux	12 997	L'Union	12 141
Balma	11 944	Ramonville-Saint-Agne	11 696
Saint-Orens-de-Gameville	11 142	Saint-Gaudens	10 845
Castanet-Tolosan	10 250	Portet-sur-Garonne	8 737
Saint-Jean	8 362	Villeneuve-Tolosane	8 252
Revel	7 985	Castelginest	7 735
Pibrac	7 440	Fonsorbes	6 909