PARIS
Paris (French: [paʁi] (
listen)) is the capital and the most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres (41 square miles) and a population in 2013 of 2,229,621 within the city limits.[4] Paris is both a commune and department, and forms the centre and headquarters of the Île-de-France,
or Paris Region, which has an area of 12,012 square kilometres (4,638
square miles) and a population in 2014 of 12,005,077, comprising 18.2
percent of the population of France.[5]The agglomeration has grown well beyond Paris' administrative limits. The Paris unité urbaine is a measure of Paris' continuous urban area for statistical purposes, including both the commune and its suburbs, and has a population of 10,601,122 (Jan. 2013 census) which makes it the largest in the European Union.[2] The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of Paris' metropolitan area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426 (Jan. 2013 census),[6] constituting one-fifth of the population of France.[7] The Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the city and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental cooperation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometers and has a population of 6.945 million persons.[8]
Paris was founded in the 3rd century BC by a Celtic people called the Parisii, who gave the city its name. By the 12th century, Paris was the largest city in the western world, a prosperous trading centre, and the home of the University of Paris, one of the oldest universities in history. By the 17th century it was one of Europe's major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today.
The Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion (US $687 billion) in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France, and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe; it is the banking and financial centre of France, and contains the headquarters of 29 of the 31 French companies ranked in the 2015 Fortune Global 500.
