Aire d'attraction de Nice

Nice metropolitan area (aire d'attraction de Nice) as defined by INSEE in 2021 is the functional urban area or commuting zone of the city of Nice, southeastern France. It covers 100 communes, has 1,103,527 inhabitants (2021) and an area of 2,073 km2. It partly overlaps with the urban unit (contiguously built-up area) of Nice, which covers some cities, e.g. Antibes, Grasse and Cannes, that are part of the functional area Cannes-Antibes. The functional urban area of Nice covers the central and southern part of the Alpes-Maritimes department (98 communes) and two adjacent communes in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. The urban area of Monaco-Menton lies adjacent to the east, the urban area of Cannes-Antibes lies adjacent to the southwest. The most populous communes in the urban area are Nice, Cagnes-sur-Mer, Carros, Saint-Laurent-du-Var, La Trinité, Vence and Villeneuve-Loubet, all of which are on or close to the Mediterranean coast. Transportation is based on a railway line and vital A8 autoroute, built from 1966. Nice Côte d'Azur Airport is the second biggest in France with more than 9 million passengers welcomed every year. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, Nice was a 20,000 inhabitants city belonging to the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. It grew steadily to reach 48,273 inhabitants in 1861, one year after annexation to the French Second Empire. By the end of the century, the population was over 100,000. The urbanized area began to spread outside city limits, in La Trinité to the North, Villefranche-sur-Mer to the East and Cagnes-sur-Mer to the West. In the meantime, old cities, about 30 km to the West, like Grasse, Cannes, Antibes were experiencing regular growth as well. After World War II, growth increased with the development of mass tourism and development of transports in the region. The consequences of the end of the Algerian War were also very important for the region's population, with many Pied-Noirs settling in the area. The growth in main cities decreased, while new town were growing very quickly like Saint-Laurent-du-Var, Vallauris, Le Cannet.