Nord (French department)

Nord
Prefecture building of the Nord department, in Lille
Prefecture building of the Nord department, in Lille
Flag of Nord
Coat of arms of Nord
Location of Nord in France
Location of Nord in France
Coordinates: 50°23′N 03°19′E / 50.383°N 3.317°E / 50.383; 3.317
CountryFrance
RegionHauts-de-France
PrefectureLille
SubprefecturesAvesnes-
sur-Helpe

Cambrai
Douai
Dunkirk
Valenciennes
Government
 • President of the Departmental CouncilChristian Poiret[1]
Area
 • Total
5,743 km2 (2,217 sq mi)
Population
 (2021)[2]
 • Total
2,611,293
 • Rank1st
 • Density450/km2 (1,200/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)
ISO 3166 codeFR-59
Department number59
Arrondissements6
Cantons41
Communes648
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2

Nord (French pronunciation: [nɔʁ] ; officially French: département du Nord; Picard: départémint dech Nord; Dutch: Noorderdepartement, lit.'Northern Department') is a département in Hauts-de-France region, France bordering Belgium. It was created from the western halves of the historical counties of Flanders and Hainaut, and the Bishopric of Cambrai. The modern coat of arms was inherited from the County of Flanders.

Nord is the country's most populous département. It had a population of 2,608,346 in 2019.[3] It also contains the metropolitan region of Lille (the main city and the prefecture of the département), the fourth-largest urban area in France after Paris, Lyon and Marseille. The department is the part of France where the French Flemish dialect of Dutch has historically been spoken as a native language. Similarly, the distinct French Picard dialect Ch'ti is spoken there.

  1. ^ "Répertoire national des élus: les conseillers départementaux". data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises (in French). 4 May 2022.
  2. ^ "Téléchargement du fichier d'ensemble des populations légales en 2021" (in French). The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 28 December 2023.
  3. ^ Populations légales 2019: 59 Nord, INSEE