Allier

Allier is a department in the centre of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. It is named after the river Allier, a tributary of the Loire. Its prefecture is Moulins.
History.
Allier is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790 with Moulins as its capital. It was formed from most of all the former province of "Bourbonnais" (the Duchy of Bourbonnais); Saint-Amand-Montrond, in the Cher department, was the only part of the old province that was not made part of Allier.
It was divided in seven districts: Cérilly, Moulins, Le Donjon, Cusset, Gannat, Montmarault and Montluçon.
In 1800, with the creation of the "arrondissements" in France, the seven districts were changed into four "arrondissements": Moulins, Gannat, Lapalisse and Montluçon.
On 10 September 1926, the "arrondissement" of Gannat was eliminated and in 1941 Vichy became the capital of one "arrondissement" of the department instead of Lapalisse.
In 1940, during World War II, the city of Vichy was the capital of Vichy France.
Geography.
Allier is part of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. It has an area of .
It is long from east to west and wide from north to south.
The department borders with 6 other departments in 4 regions:
There are four main geographical zones in the department:
The main rivers in the department are:
Climate.
The Köppen climate classification type for the climate at Nevers is an "Oceanic climate" (also known as Maritime Temperate climate) and of the subtype "Cfb".
There are two periods of maximum precipitation in June and October and a minimum in January and February with average of Montluçon (altitude: 207 m), in Moulins (245 m) in Vichy (251 m); and in Lapalisse (285 m).
Administration.
Allier is managed by the "Departmental Council of Allier" in Moulins. The department is part of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
Administrative divisions.
There are 3 "arrondissements" (districts), 19 "cantons" and 317 "communes" (municipalities) in Allier.
The following is a list of the 19 cantons of the Allier department (with their INSEE codes), following the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015:
Demographics.
There is not a traditional demonym to name the inhabitants of the Allier department. Some names used are "Alliérins", "Bourbonnais", "Elavérins", or simply "habitants de l'Allier" ("inhabitants of Allier").
Of these names, the most used is "Bourbonnais" followed by "habitants de l'Allier".
Allier had a population, in 2014, of 343,062, for a population density of inhabitants/km2. The "arrondissement" of Vichy, with 122,267 inhabitants, is the "arrondissement" with more inhabitants.
Evolution of the population in Allier
The 10 "communes" in the department with more inhabitants are: