Essonne (French: [ɛsɔn]) is a département of France in the southern Île-de-France region. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659 across 194 communes.
Essonne was formed on 1 January 1968 when Seine-et-Oise was split into smaller departments. Its prefecture is Évry-Courcouronnes. Its INSEE and postcode number is 91.
The Essonne department was created on 1 January 1968, from the southern portion of the former department of Seine-et-Oise.
In June 1963, Carrefour S.A. opened the first hypermarket in the Paris region at Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois (although the word "hypermarché" was first used only in 1966). Based on the ideas put forward by the American logistics pioneer Bernardo Trujillo, the centre offered on a single site a hitherto unknown combination of wide choice and low prices, supported by 400 car parking spaces.
In 1969, the communes of Châteaufort and Toussus-le-Noble were separated from Essonne and added to the department of Yvelines.
Essonne belongs to the region of Île-de-France.
It has borders with the departments of:
All of northern Essonne department belongs to the Parisian agglomeration and is very urbanized. The south remains rural.
The most populous commune is Évry-Courcouronnes, the prefecture. As of 2019, the 5 most populous communes are:
Commune | Population (2019) |
---|---|
Évry-Courcouronnes | 66,851 |
Corbeil-Essonnes | 51,234 |
Massy | 50,644 |
Savigny-sur-Orge | 36,577 |
Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois | 35,830 |
In descending order, the other communes over 25,000 population are: Athis-Mons, Palaiseau, Vigneux-sur-Seine, Viry-Châtillon, Ris-Orangis, Yerres, Draveil, Grigny, Brétigny-sur-Orge, Étampes, Brunoy and Les Ulis. Milly-la-Forêt is a notable example of its more rural communes.
Population development since 1876:
Essonne is twinned with:
Those are other destinations to find places related to Essonne: