Arrondissement of Rochefort

The arrondissement of Rochefort is an arrondissement of France, in the Charente-Maritime department, Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. Its capital is the city of Rochefort.
History.
When the Charente-Maritime department was created on 1790, the "arrondissement" of Rochefort was part of that original department.
Geography.
The "arrondissement" of Rochefort has an area of , and a population of 187,843 inhabitants for a density of inhabitants/km².
Rochefort is in the northern half of the department. It is bordered to the north by the "arrondissement" of La Rochelle, to the northeast by the Deux-Sèvres department, to the east by the "arrondissements" of Saint-Jean-d'Angély and Saintes. To the south is the upper part the Gironde estuary, the largest estuary of France, and the Atlantic Ocean is to the west.
Composition.
Cantons.
After the reorganisation of the cantons in France, cantons are not subdivisions of the "arrondissements" so they could have "communes" that belong to different "arrondissements".
In the "arrondissement" of Rochefort, there are 12 cantons, some of them only partially. The following table shows the distribution of the "communes" in the cantons and "arrondissements":
Communes.
The "arrondissement" of Rochefort has 82 "communes"; they are (with their INSEE codes):
The "communes" with more inhabitants in the "arrondissement" are: