Drôme

Drôme () is a French department in southeastern France in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region and named after the Drôme river. Its prefecture is the city of Valence.
History.
Drôme is one of the 83 French departments made during the French revolution, on 4 March 1790; it was made with part of the old French province of Dauphiné. It was divided in 6 districts: Romans, Valence, Die, Buis, Montélimar,and Crest. The capital was Chabeuil but in the same year the capital was moved to Valence.
With the creation of the "arrondissements", the 6 districts became four "arrondissements": Valence, Die, Montélimar and Nyons. In 1926, the "arrondissement" of Montélimar was eliminated.
Geography.
Drôme is part of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, in southeastern France, with an area of .
The department borders with 5 other departments in 2 regions:
There are 5 natural regions in Drôme; they are, from north to south:
The highest point in the department is "Rocher Rond", (). It is high it is on the border with the Hautes-Alpes department.
The main rivers of Drôme are:
Climate.
The climate of the Drôme department, in the city of Valence, is an oceanic climate, Cfb (Marine West Coast Climate) in the Köppen climate classification.
The average temperature for the year in Valence, at an altitude of , is . The warmest month, on average, is July with an average temperature of . The coolest month on average is January, with an average temperature of .
The average amount of precipitation for the year in Valence is . The month with the most precipitation on average is September with of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is February with an average of .
Administration.
Drôme is part of the region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The department is managed by the "Departamental Council of the Drôme" in Valence.
Administrative divisions.
There are 3 "arrondissements" (districts), 23 "cantons" and 353 "communes" (municipalities) in Drôme.
The following is a list of the 19 cantons of the Drôme department (with their INSEE codes), in France, following the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015:
Demographics.
The inhabitants of Drôme are known, in French, as "Drômois" (women: "Drômoises").
Drôme has a population, in 2014, of 499,159, for a population density of inhabitants/km2. The "arrondissement" of Valence, with 314,233 inhabitants, is by far the largest. The other two, Nyons and Die, have respectively 141,971 and 42,955 inhabitants.
The city with more people living in it is the capital, Valence (62,150 inhabitants). The subprefectures of Nyons and Die have, respectively, 6,641 and 4,516 inhabitants.
Evolution of the population in Drôme
The 10 most important cities in the department are: