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Pas-de-Calais Pas-Calés
Department
Prefecture building of the based department, in Arras
FlagCoat of arms
Location of Pas-de-Calais in France
Coordinates: 50°57′N 1°51′E / 50.950°N 1.850°E / 50.950; 1.850
Country	France
Region	Hauts-de-France
Prefecture	Arras
Subprefectures	Béthune, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Calais, Lens, Montreuil, Saint-Omer
Government
• Body	Departmental Council of Pas-de-Calais
• President of the Departmental Council	Jean-Claude Leroy
Area
• Total	6,706 km (2,589 sq mi)
Population
• Total	1,461,441
• Rank	7th
• Density	220/km (560/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	FR-62
Department number	62
Arrondissements	7
Cantons	39
Communes	890
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km

The Pas-de-Calais (French: [pɑ d(ə) kalɛ] , "strait of Calais"; Picard: Pas-Calés; Dutch: Nauw van Calais) is a department in north-eastern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments of France, with 890, and is the 8th most populous. It had a population of 1,465,278 in 2019. The Calais Passage connects to the Port of Calais on the English Channel. The Pas-de-Calais borders the departments of Nord and Somme and is connected to the English county of Kent via the Channel Tunnel.

History

Inhabited since prehistoric times, the Pas-de-Calais region was populated in turn by the Celtic Belgae, the Romans, the Germanic Franks and the Alemanni. During the fourth and fifth centuries, the Roman practice of co-opting Germanic tribes to provide military and defence services along the route from Boulogne-sur-Mer to Cologne created a Germanic-Romance linguistic border in the region that persisted until the eighth century.

Saxon colonization into the region from the fifth to the eighth centuries likely extended the linguistic border somewhat south and west so that by the ninth century most inhabitants north of the line between Béthune and Berck spoke a dialect of Middle Dutch, while the inhabitants to the south spoke Picard, a variety of Romance dialects.

This linguistic border is still evident today in the toponyms and patronyms of the region. Beginning in the ninth century, the linguistic border began a steady move to north and the east, and by the end of the 15th century Romance dialects had completely displaced those of Dutch.

Pas-de-Calais is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Calaisis, formerly English, Boulonnais, Ponthieu and Artois, this last formerly part of the Spanish Netherlands.

Some of the costliest battles of World War I were fought in the region. The Canadian National Vimy Memorial, eight kilometres from Arras, commemorates the Battle of Vimy Ridge assault during the Battle of Arras (1917) and is Canada's most important memorial in Europe to its fallen soldiers.

Pas-de-Calais was also the target of Operation Fortitude during World War II, which was an Allied plan to deceive the Germans that the invasion of Europe at D-Day was to occur here, rather than in Normandy.

Geography

Pas-de-Calais is in the current region of Hauts-de-France and is surrounded by the departments of Nord and Somme, the English Channel, and the North Sea. It shares a maritime border with the English county of Kent in the United Kingdom halfway through the Channel Tunnel.

The principal rivers are the following:

• Authie
• Canche
• Ternoise
• Liane
• Sensée
• Scarpe
• Deûle
• Lys
• Aa

Principal towns

Its principal towns are, on the coast, Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer, and in Artois, Arras, Lens, Liévin, and Béthune. The most populous commune is Calais; the prefecture Arras is the second-most populous. As of 2019, there are 10 communes with more than 15,000 inhabitants:

Economy

The economy of the department was long dependent on mining, primarily the coal mines near the town of Lens, Pas-de-Calais where coal was discovered in 1849. However, since World War II, the economy has become more diversified.

Demographics

The inhabitants of the department are called Pas-de-Calaisiens.

Pas-de-Calais is one of the most densely populated departments of France, but has no cities with over 100,000 residents: Calais has about 73,000 inhabitants. The remaining population is primarily concentrated along the border with the department of Nord in the mining district, where a string of small towns constitutes an urban area with a population of about 1.2 million. The centre and south of the department are more rural, but still quite heavily populated, with many villages and small towns.

Although the department saw some of the heaviest fighting of World War I, its population rebounded quickly after both world wars. However, many of the mining towns have seen dramatic decreases in population, some up to half of their population.

Population development since 1801:

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1801 534,416 —     1821 626,571 +0.80% 1831 655,215 +0.45% 1841 685,021 +0.45% 1851 692,994 +0.12% 1861 724,338 +0.44% 1872 761,158 +0.45% 1881 819,022 +0.82% 1891 874,364 +0.66% 1901 955,391 +0.89% 1911 1,068,155 +1.12% 1921 989,967 −0.76% 1931 1,205,191 +1.99%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1936 1,179,467 −0.43% 1946 1,168,545 −0.09% 1954 1,276,833 +1.11% 1962 1,366,282 +0.85% 1968 1,397,159 +0.37% 1975 1,402,295 +0.05% 1982 1,412,413 +0.10% 1990 1,433,203 +0.18% 1999 1,441,568 +0.06% 2006 1,453,387 +0.12% 2011 1,462,807 +0.13% 2016 1,470,725 +0.11%
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Sources:

Politics

Local elections

The president of the Departmental Council is Jean-Claude Leroy, elected in 2017.

National politics

In the second round of the French presidential elections of 2017 Pas-de-Calais was one of only two departments in which the candidate of the Front National, Marine Le Pen, received a majority of the votes cast: 52.06%.

Presidential elections 2nd round

Current National Assembly Representatives

National Assembly Representatives (2017 to 2022)

Education

There are currently two public universities in the department. Although it is one of the most populous departments of France, Pas-de-Calais did not contain a university until 1991 when the French government created two universities: ULCO (Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale) on the western part of the department, and Université d'Artois on the eastern part.

Tourism

• Mussel aquaculture in Wissant
• Cap Gris Nez
• Cap Blanc Nez
• Boulogne-sur-Mer
• Nausicaä
• Le Touquet
• Grand-Place of Arras
• Notre Dame de Lorette
• Canadian National Vimy Memorial, 11 kilometres from Arras
• Liberty Leading the People on permanent display in Louvre-Lens since 2012
• Blockhaus d'Éperlecques
• Todt Battery, Audinghen

See also

• Cantons of the Pas-de-Calais department
• Communes of the Pas-de-Calais department
• Arrondissements of the Pas-de-Calais department
• Battle of Vimy Ridge
• 7 Valleys Pas-de-Calais
• Achicourt station

References

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: 62 Pas-de-Calais, INSEE
4. Jackson, Mark (2021-09-01). "Colt and Getlink to Deploy New Fibre Optic Network via Channel Tunnel". ISPreview UK. Retrieved 2021-09-12.
5. "Canadian National Vimy Memorial, France". The Great War UK. 2015. Retrieved 31 March 2017. The ridge runs in a direction from Givenchy-en-Gohelle in the north-west to Farbus in the south-east.
6. Hakim, Joy (1995). A History of Us: War, Peace and all that Jazz. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509514-6.
7. "Discovery of Coal". Ville de Lens. Archived from the original on 21 March 2018. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
8. "Historique du Pas-de-Calais". Le SPLAF.
9. "Évolution et structure de la population en 2016". INSEE.
10. Résultats élections, Le Monde
11. ^ "Présidentielles".
12. "Résultats de l'élection présidentielle de 1995 par département - Politiquemania".
13. ^ Nationale, Assemblée. "Assemblée nationale ~ Les députés, le vote de la loi, le Parlement français". Assemblée nationale.
14. "Décret no 91-1161 du 7 novembre 1991 portant création et organisation provisoire de l'université du Littoral". legifrance.gouv.fr.
15. "Décret no 91-1160 du 7 novembre 1991 portant création et organisation provisoire de l'université d'Artois". legifrance.gouv.fr.

External links

• (in French) A whole wiki about the Pas-de-Calais
• (in French) Prefecture website
• (in French) Departmental Council website
• (in English) Official Tourist website
• (in English) Short regional tourism guide
• (in English) Coats of arms of the municipalities in Pas-de-Calais

v t e Cantons of the Pas-de-Calais department

Aire-sur-la-Lys Arras-1 Arras-2 Arras-3 Auchel Auxi-le-Château Avesnes-le-Comte Avion Bapaume Berck Béthune Beuvry Boulogne-sur-Mer-1 Boulogne-sur-Mer-2 Brebières Bruay-la-Buissière Bully-les-Mines Calais-1 Calais-2 Calais-3 Carvin Desvres Douvrin Étaples Fruges Harnes Hénin-Beaumont-1 Hénin-Beaumont-2 Lens Liévin Lillers Longuenesse Lumbres Marck Nœux-les-Mines Outreau Saint-Omer Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise Wingles

v t e Departments of France
Metropolitan	01 Ain 02 Aisne 03 Allier 04 Alpes-de-Haute-Provence 05 Hautes-Alpes 06 Alpes-Maritimes 07 Ardèche 08 Ardennes 09 Ariège 10 Aube 11 Aude 12 Aveyron 13 Bouches-du-Rhône 14 Calvados 15 Cantal 16 Charente 17 Charente-Maritime 18 Cher 19 Corrèze 2A Corse-du-Sud 2B Haute-Corse 21 Côte-d'Or 22 Côtes-d'Armor 23 Creuse 24 Dordogne 25 Doubs 26 Drôme 27 Eure 28 Eure-et-Loir 29 Finistère 30 Gard 31 Haute-Garonne 32 Gers 33 Gironde 34 Hérault 35 Ille-et-Vilaine 36 Indre 37 Indre-et-Loire 38 Isère 39 Jura 40 Landes 41 Loir-et-Cher 42 Loire 43 Haute-Loire 44 Loire-Atlantique 45 Loiret 46 Lot 47 Lot-et-Garonne 48 Lozère 49 Maine-et-Loire 50 Manche 51 Marne 52 Haute-Marne 53 Mayenne 54 Meurthe-et-Moselle 55 Meuse 56 Morbihan 57 Moselle 58 Nièvre 59 Nord 60 Oise 61 Orne 62 Pas-de-Calais 63 Puy-de-Dôme 64 Pyrénées-Atlantiques 65 Hautes-Pyrénées 66 Pyrénées-Orientales 67 Bas-Rhin 68 Haut-Rhin 69D Rhône 70 Haute-Saône 71 Saône-et-Loire 72 Sarthe 73 Savoie 74 Haute-Savoie 76 Seine-Maritime 77 Seine-et-Marne 78 Yvelines 79 Deux-Sèvres 80 Somme 81 Tarn 82 Tarn-et-Garonne 83 Var 84 Vaucluse 85 Vendée 86 Vienne 87 Haute-Vienne 88 Vosges 89 Yonne 90 Territoire de Belfort 91 Essonne 92 Hauts-de-Seine 93 Seine-Saint-Denis 94 Val-de-Marne 95 Val-d'Oise
Overseas	971 Guadeloupe 972 Martinique (territorial collectivity) 973 French Guiana (territorial collectivity) 974 Réunion 976 Mayotte
Special	69M Lyon (collectivity with special status) 75 Paris (collectivity with special status)
Former	975 Saint Pierre and Miquelon (Overseas collectivity)

• Pas-de-Calais
• Departments of Hauts-de-France
• 1790 establishments in France
• States and territories established in 1790