Economy of Paris

Paris and the surrounding Ile-de-France region form one of the engines of the global economy with the 2003 GDP calculated by INSEE at €448,933 billion [8], or US$506.7 billion (at real exchange rates, not at PPP). In 2003, the Ile-de-France would have ranked as the fifteenth largest economy in the world, with a higher GDP than either Russia or Brazil.

The Ile-de-France accounts for about 29% of the total GDP of metropolitan France, although its population is only 18.7% of the total population of metropolitan France (as of 2004). In 2002, according to Eurostat, the Ile-de-France GDP accounted for 4.5% of the total GDP of the European Union (of 25 members), although its population is only 2.45% of the total population of the European Union.

The economic centre of the metropolitan area is located in the western half of the city proper and the central portion of the Hauts-de-Seine departement, forming a triangle between the Opera Garnier, La Defense and the Val de Seine. As a consequence some workers commute from the suburbs to work in the city, and others commute from the city to work in the suburbs. At the 1999 census 47.5% of the 5,089,170 people in employment in the metropolitan area worked in the city of Paris and the Hauts-de-Seine departement (only 31.5% worked exclusively in the city proper).

The Paris economy is largely a service economy but although the Ile-de-France’s manufacturing base is in a period of decline, it is still an important manufacturing powerhouse of Europe. The economy of Paris and neighbouring departements have moved towards high value-added services, in particular business services.

The 1999 census indicates that of the 5,089,170 persons employed in the Paris metropolitan area, 16.5% worked in business services, 13.0% in commerce (retail and wholesale trade), 12.3% in manufacturing, 10.0% in public administrations and defense, 8.7% in health services, 8.2% in transportation and communications, 6.6% in education, and the remaining 24.7% in many other economic sectors. Among the manufacturing sector, the largest employers were the electronic and electrical industry (17.9% of the total manufacturing workforce in 1999) and the publishing and printing industry (14.0% of the total manufacturing workforce), with the remaining 68.1% of the manufacturing workforce distributed among many other industries. The tourism industry and tourist related services, employ 4.7% of the total workforce of Ile-de-France (in 1999), and 7% of the total workforce of the city of Paris proper

Spatial organization of the Paris economy

The city of Paris is not properly speaking the economic centre of the metropolitan area as most of the offices are located in the western half of the city of Paris proper and the central portion of the Hauts-de-Seine departement, forming a triangle between the Opera Garnier, La Defense and the Val de Seine. As a consequence workers do not just commute from the suburbs to work in the city of Paris, but also come from the city of Paris to work in the suburbs. At the 1999 census 47.5% of the 5,089,170 people in employment in the metropolitan area of Paris worked within the city of Paris and the Hauts-de-Seine departement (only 31.5% worked exclusively within the city of Paris).

During the 1960’s and 1970’s, the French government has created several villes nouvelles (”new towns”) on the outer ring of Paris agglomeration in order to multipolarize the economy of the city. Economically speaking, those villes nouvelles have been a relative success since many companies are still moving into those areas today. However, they didn’t completely fulfilled their mission of multipolarization since economical activities remain widely concentrated in the central core of the metropolitan area.

Workforce and sectors of the Paris economy

As of the 1999 census, there were 5,089,170 [7] persons employed in the metropolitan area (AU) of Paris. At the same 1999 census, 4,949,306 [8] people living in the metropolitan area (AU) of Paris had a job. The almost 140,000 people difference between these two figures comes from an outflow of about 60,000 people living inside the metropolitan area (AU) who work outside of the metropolitan area (AU), and an inflow of about 200,000 people living outside of the metropolitan area (AU) who come to work inside the metropolitan area (AU) every day. Thus, out of the 5,089,170 people employed in the metropolitan area (AU) in 1999, only about 200,000 people (3.9% of the total) lived outside of the metropolitan area (AU), which is not surprising since the boundaries of the metropolitan area (AU) are based on commuting patterns (see: aire urbaine).

Of the 5,089,170 persons employed in the metropolitan area (AU) of Paris in 1999, 1,600,815 (31.5%) [9] worked inside the city of Paris proper, while 3,488,355 (68.5%) worked in the suburbs. Well into the middle of the 20th century, the majority of jobs in the metropolitan area were concentrated in the city of Paris proper. However, after the Second World War the economic activity relocated to the suburbs, and the city has been steadily losing jobs to the benefit of the suburbs, in particular the Hauts-de-Seine (92) departement, home of the new La Defense business district, to the west of the city proper. Hauts-de-Seine has become a sort of extension of central Paris, with 815,471 [10] persons employed in 1999, half as many as in the city of Paris proper. Thus, Hauts-de-Seine and Paris together still harbored 47.5% of all persons employed in the metropolitan area (UA) in 1999, which should help to put into perspective the phenomenon of job relocation to the suburbs: it was as much a relocation to the suburbs as an extension of central Paris beyond the administrative limits of the city. (more…)

Demographics of Paris

The population of the city of Paris at the 1999 census was 2,125,246. This is a number far below its 1921 historical peak of 2.9 million: from this time when Paris enjoyed a role as France’s productive leader as well as economic pole, it has undergone a period of disindustrialisation and a loss of many of its living spaces for offices - although not to a scale seen during the same era in many other western cities. This ‘de-habitation’ tendency is seen as negative for Paris, and its current administration is trying to reverse it, and with some success, as the July 2004 population estimate shows Paris having an increase in population for the first time since 1954.

Paris’ density is nearly as high as New York City’s Manhattan island, yet it has none of the skyscrapers of the latter metropolis: unlike its western counterpart, whose daytime frequentation is mostly workers commuting from the suburbs, Paris has remained a largely residential city and has maintained a relatively balanced distribution of apartment residences, office spaces and commercial activities catering to both.

Paris within its administrative limits is much smaller than its actual growth as an agglomeration: at present, the city’s urban area overflows its neighbouring three departements (also known as its petite couronne (smaller crown)) and extends into its Ile-de-France region’s four outer grande couronne (greater crown) departements.

Paris’ most sparsely populated quarters are its monument-heavy and administration-charged 1st and 7th arrondissements, and the office-dominated 8th arrondissement. The city is at its densest in its northern and eastern arrondissements; its 11th arrondissement had a density of 40,672 inh. per km² (105,339 inh. per sq. mile) in 1999, and some of the same’s eastern quarters showed densities close to 100,000 inh. per km² (260,000 inh. per sq. mile) the same year.

The Paris region is one of the most multi-cultural in Europe, with 19.4% of its total population born outside of metropolitan France. As of 1999, 4.2% of those living within the Paris region were recent migrants (post-1990 census arrivals) in their majority from mainland China and Africa.
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History of Paris

The history of Paris spans over 2,000 years, during which time the city grew from a small Celtic settlement to the multicultural capital of a modern European state.The region around Paris was settled from about 250 BC, by the Celtic Parisii who were known as boatmen and traders. They established a settlement by the River Seine to control river commerce. There is dispute about the exact location of the settlement, traditionally assumed to be on the Ile de la Cite, but now placed by many historians near Gare d’Austerlitz. Rome conquered the region in 52 BC and built the city of Lutetia on the Left Bank Sainte Genevieve Hill as this area was protected from river floods. Lutetia expanded and prospered during the ensuing period of peaceful Gallo-Roman cohabitation, but third-century Germanic invasions caused a period of decline. By 400 AD Lutetia had been reduced to a garrison town entrenched in the hastily fortified central island. The city reclaimed its original name of “Paris” towards the end of the Roman occupation.

From AD 512, Paris was the capital of the Frankish king Clovis I, who commissioned the first cathedral and abbey. On the death of Clovis, the Frankish kingdom was divided with Paris as the capital of a much smaller kingdom. By the time of the Carolingian dynasty (9th century), it was little more than a feudal county stronghold.

Ancient Paris

The area of modern Paris has been inhabited since at least the fourth millennium BC, although little is known about these early inhabitants. The first known permanent settlement on the site was founded about 250 BC by a Celtic tribe called the Parisii, who established a fishing village on the Seine island that was later to become the Ile de la Cite. This was known as Lutetia, a name first recorded by Julius Caesar in his Gallic Wars.

Lutetia was a prosperous place and occupied a very strategic position on the river, controlling shipping in both directions. It came under Roman control after the revolt of 52 BC when Vercingetorix led a Celtic uprising against the Romans under Caesar. The town sided with the rebels and was said to have contributed 8,000 men to Vercingetorix’s army. It was garrisoned by Vercingetorix’s lieutenant Camulogenus, whose army camped on the Mons Lutetius (where the Pantheon is now situated). The Romans crushed the rebels at nearby Melun and took control of Lutetia.

Under Roman rule, the town was thoroughly Romanised and grew considerably. It was, however, not the capital of its province, Lugdunensis Senona - that role was played by Agedincum (modern Sens, Yonne). It was Christianised in the 3rd century when St Denis became the city’s first bishop. The process was not entirely peaceful - in about 250 St Denis and two companions were arrested and decapitated on the hill of Mons Mercurius, thereafter known as Mons Martis (Martyrs’ Hill, now Montmartre).

Lutetia was renamed Paris in 212, after the local tribe, but the rest of the 3rd and 4th century was wracked by war and civil unrest. The city came under attack from barbarian invaders, prompting the construction of a defensive city wall. In 357 the Emperor Constantine’s nephew Julian arrived in Paris to become the city’s new governor. Although his uncle was famously the emperor who declared Christianity the official religion of the Empire, Julian “the Apostate” strove to roll back its advance. He became emperor in 361 but died in battle only two years later.

Roman rule in northern Gaul effectively collapsed in the 5th century. In 451 the region was invaded by Attila the Hun, prompting fears that Paris would be attacked. According to legend, the city was saved by the piety of Sainte Genevieve and her followers, whose prayers for relief were answered when Attila’s march turned away from Paris to the south. Ste Genevieve remains Paris’ patron saint to this day.

Early Medieval Paris

The city’s escape from Attila proved a short-lived reprieve, as it was attacked and overrun in 464 by Childeric I (Childeric the Frank). His son Clovis I made the city his capital in 506 and was buried there on his death in 511, alongside St. Genevieve.

By this time, Paris was a typically crowded early medieval city with timber buildings alongside surviving Roman remains. According to the chronicler Geoffrey of Tours, it suffered a disastrous fire in 585. The city grew beyond the boundaries of the Ile, with suburbs being established on both banks of the river.

The Merovingian kings died out in 751, to be replaced by the Carolingians. Pepin was proclaimed king of the Franks in 751, to be succeeded by Charlemagne, who moved the capital of his Holy Roman Empire from Paris to Aachen. The city was neglected by the Empire and suffered grievously from Viking raiders who repeatedly sailed upriver to attack it. On March 28, 845 Paris was sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collected a huge ransom in exchange for leaving. The weakness of the late Carolingian kings led to the gradual rise in power of the Counts of Paris.

In 885 the city was faced with a massive Viking invasion force, said to have numbered 700 ships and 30,000 men. Its inhabitants sought the assistance of Robert the Strong, Count of Anjou, and his son Odo, Count of Paris. Odo led the defence of the city in opposition to a ten-month Viking siege in 885 and became co-ruler of the Empire with Charles the Simple. His grand-nephew Hugh Capet was elected King of France (or Francia - literally the land of the Franks) in 987. He made Paris his capital and founded a long-lasting dynasty, the Capetians.

Paris and Medieval France

The Capetians

The French Crown initially controlled little more than Paris and the surrounding region, the Ile-de-France, but over the centuries steadily expanded its territory and power. Paris itself developed an increasing degree of importance as a royal capital, a centre of learning and an ecclesiastical centre.

As early as the 12th century, the distinctive character of the city’s districts was emerging. The Ile de la Cite, on which the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris was built in 1163, was the centre of government and religious life; the Left Bank was the centre of learning, focusing on the various Church-run schools established there; and the Right Bank was the centre of commerce and finance. A league of merchants, the so-called Hanse Parisienne, was established and quickly became a powerful force in the city’s affairs.

Under the rule of Philippe Auguste, who became king in 1180, a number of major building works were carried out in Paris. He built a new city wall and began the construction of the Louvre Palace, as well as paving streets and establishing a covered market at Les Halles (where it would remain until 1969).

His grandson Louis IX, renowned for his extreme piety (and later canonised as St Louis) established the city as a major centre of pilgrimage in the 13th century with the construction of the Sainte-Chapelle on the Ile de la Cite, and the completion of the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris and the Saint Denis Basilica. The latter was one of the finest medieval Gothic religious buildings ever constructed and was built to house Louis’ most precious possession - the (alleged) Crown of Thorns, purchased from the bankrupt Byzantine Empire at an extortionate price. (more…)

Geography and climate of Paris

Paris is located at 48°52′00?N, 2°19′59?E (48.866667, 2.333056). The city straddles a north-bending arc of the river Seine, which features two inhabited islands, the Ile Saint-Louis and the larger Ile de la Cite which is the heart and origin of the city. The altitude of Paris varies, with several prominent hills, of which the highest is Montmartre at 130 metres (426½ ft) above sea level. The highest elevation in the urban area of Paris is in the Forest of Montmorency (Val-d’Oise departement), 19.5 km. (12 miles) north-northwest of the center of Paris as the crow flies, at 195 metres (640 ft) above sea-level.

The city (commune) of Paris proper has an area of 105.397 square kilometres (40.69 mi²), and is only the the 113th largest commune in France (out of 36,782). Excluding its outlying parks of Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes, the city’s actual area is 86.928 square kilometres (33.56 mi²), in the form of an oval with a circumference of 35.5 kilometres (22 miles). This oval extends 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) from north to south, and 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) from east to west.

The administrative borders of the commune have remained largely unchanged since 1860, when Napoleon III and the prefect Haussmann doubled the size of the city to 78 km² (30.1 mi²) by annexing all the land enclosed within the city’s then distant ring of fortifications. Several suburban communes such as Montmartre and Auteuil were incorporated in whole or in part. The city was divided into the twenty arrondissements which still exist today. The city limits have changed only marginally since then, reaching the 86.9 km² figure indicated above in the 1920s. In 1929 the Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes were also officially incorporated into the city.

The urban area (unite urbaine) (contiguous built-up area) covers 2,723 km² (1,051.4 mi²) (INSEE 1999), or about 26 times as large as the commune of Paris. The metropolitan area (aire urbaine) (built-up area plus the commuter belt) reaches beyond the surrounding Ile-de-France administative region to cover 14,518 km² (5,605.5 mi²) (INSEE 1999), or about 138 times as large as the commune of Paris. (more…)

Introducation of Paris

Paris is France’s capital and largest city, straddling the river Seine in the northern centre of its country. Paris is also capital and one of eight departements of the Ile-de-France administrative region.

As one of the main cultural and political centres in Europe since the High Middle Ages, Paris contains many vestiges from its past including numerous art galleries, museums and theatres. Nicknamed “the City of Light” (la Ville Lumiere) since the 19th century, Paris also has a reputation as a “romantic” city. The most recognisable symbol of Paris is the 324 metre (1,063 ft) brown metal Eiffel Tower located on the banks of the Seine. Paris is also internationally renowned for its defining neo-classical architecture and its influence in fashion and the arts. It is often listed as one of the four major global cities along with New York, London and Tokyo, and is at present the world’s most visited city.

In addition to the head offices of nearly half of all French companies, and offices of many major international firms, Paris hosts the headquarters of many international trade and social organisations, including the OECD, ICC, and UNESCO. Paris is also one of the major financial and business centres of the world, with the largest business district of Europe (La Defense)[1], and the second-largest stock exchange in Europe (Euronext). The Ile-de-France region alone produces over a quarter of France’s wealth, with a GDP of nearly €450 billion in 2003.

The city of Paris within its administrative limits has an estimated mid-2004 population of 2,144,700, but over the last century the city has grown well beyond its administrative boundaries. Today, Paris urban area (the contiguous built-up area) has a population estimated at 9.9 million in 2005, and the population of Paris metropolitan area (including satellite cities) is estimated at 11.6 million people in 2006. (more…)

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