Yvelines
Department of France in Île-de-France
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yvelines (French pronunciation: [ivlin] ⓘ) is a department in the western part of the Île-de-France region in Northern France. In 2023, it had a population of 1,485,086.[4] Its prefecture is Versailles, home to the Palace of Versailles, the principal residence of the King of France from 1682 until 1789, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979. Yvelines' subprefectures are Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Mantes-la-Jolie and Rambouillet.
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Yvelines | |
|---|---|
.jpg) .jpg) .jpg)  From top down, left to right: prefecture building in Versailles, view of La Celle-Saint-Cloud, forest and lake in Guyancourt, marble courtyard and gardens of the Palace of Versailles | |
 Flag  Coat of arms | |
 Location of Yvelines in France | |
| Coordinates: 48°50′N 1°55′E | |
| Country | France |
| Region | Île-de-France |
| Prefecture | Versailles |
| Subprefectures | Mantes-la-Jolie Rambouillet Saint-Germain- en-Laye |
| Government | |
| • President of the Departmental Council | Pierre Bédier[1] (LR) |
| Area | |
• Total | 2,284 km2 (882 sq mi) |
| Population (2023)[2] | |
• Total | 1,485,086 |
| • Rank | 8th |
| • Density | 650.2/km2 (1,684/sq mi) |
| GDP | |
| • Total | €60.058 billion (2021) |
| • Per capita | €42,238 (2021) |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
| Department number | 78 |
| Arrondissements | 4 |
| Cantons | 21 |
| Communes | 259 |
| ^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries and lakes, ponds and glaciers larger than 1 km2. | |
History
Yvelines was created from the western part of the former department of Seine-et-Oise on 1 January 1968 in accordance with a law passed on 10 January 1964 and a décret d'application (a decree specifying how a law should be enforced) from 26 February 1965. It inherited Seine-et-Oise's official number of 78 since it took up the largest portion of its territory. In addition to this, it inherited Seine-et-Oise's prefecture, Versailles.
Yvelines derives its name from the Forest of Yveline, next to Rambouillet.[5]
It gained the communes of Châteaufort and Toussus-le-Noble from the adjacent department of Essonne in 1969.
The departmental capital, Versailles, which grew up around Louis XIV's château, was also the French capital for more than a century under the Ancien Régime and again between 1871 and 1879 during the early years of the Third Republic. Since then the château has continued to welcome the French Parliament when it is called upon to sit in a congressional sitting (with both houses sitting together) in order to enact constitutional changes or to listen to a formal declaration by the President.[6]
Geography
Situation
Yvelines is bordered by the departments of Val-d'Oise on the north, Hauts-de-Seine on the east, Essonne on the southeast, Eure-et-Loir on the southwest and Eure on the west.
The eastern part of the department, as well as its northern part along the Seine, is part of the Paris metropolitan area, but the rest of the department is rural, much of it covered by the Forest of Rambouillet (also known as the Forest of Yveline, from which the name of the department is derived).
Two regional parks can be found in Yvelines: Haute Vallée de Chevreuse Regional Natural Park and part of Vexin Français Park. Yvelines is home to one of France's best known golf courses, La Tuilerie-Bignon, in the village of Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche.
Principal towns
Besides Versailles (the prefecture and most populous commune) and the subprefectures of Mantes-la-Jolie, Rambouillet, and Saint-Germain-en-Laye, important cities include Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, Poissy, Les Mureaux, Houilles, Plaisir, Sartrouville, Chatou, Le Chesnay, and the new agglomeration community of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. As of 2023, there are 24 communes with more than 20,000 inhabitants. The 10 most populous communes are:[7]
| Commune | Population (2023) |
|---|---|
| Versailles | 84,095 |
| Sartrouville | 52,763 |
| Saint-Germain-en-Laye | 45,931 |
| Mantes-la-Jolie | 43,526 |
| Poissy | 40,983 |
| Conflans-Sainte-Honorine | 36,958 |
| Trappes | 34,689 |
| Les Mureaux | 34,632 |
| Houilles | 33,983 |
| Montigny-le-Bretonneux | 32,465 |
Demographics
In French, a man from the Yvelines is called Yvelinois (plural Yvelinois); a woman is Yvelinoise (plural Yvelinoises).
Population development since 1876
Population data refer to the department in its geography as of January 2025.
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Place of birth of residents
| Born in metropolitan France | Born outside metropolitan France | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 85.5% | 14.5% | |||
| Born in overseas France |
Born in foreign countries with French citizenship at birth1 | EU-15 immigrants2 | Non-EU-15 immigrants | |
| 1.1% | 3.0% | 4.2% | 6.2% | |
| 1 This group is made up largely of former French settlers, such as pieds-noirs in Northwest Africa, followed by former colonial citizens who had French citizenship at birth (such as was often the case for the native elite in French colonies), as well as to a lesser extent foreign-born children of French expatriates. A foreign country is understood as a country not part of France in 1999, so a person born for example in 1950 in Algeria, when Algeria was an integral part of France, is nonetheless listed as a person born in a foreign country in French statistics. 2 An immigrant is a person born in a foreign country not having French citizenship at birth. An immigrant may have acquired French citizenship since moving to France, but is still considered an immigrant in French statistics. On the other hand, persons born in France with foreign citizenship (the children of immigrants) are not listed as immigrants. | ||||
Tourism
Palaces and châteaux
- Palace of Versailles
- Château de Breteuil
- Château du Haut-Buc
- Château de Dampierre
- Château de Jouy-en-Josas
- Château de Maisons
- Château de Rambouillet
- Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye
- Château of Thoiry
- Château de Vaux-sur-Seine
- Château de Mauvières
- Château du Pont
- Château de Villette
- Château de Millemont
Museums
- Museum of National Antiques (Saint-Germain-en-Laye)
- Museum of River and Canal Craft (Conflans-Sainte-Honorine)
- Horse-drawn Coach Museum (Versailles)
- Toy Museum (Poissy)
- Sheep Museum (Rambouillet)
- Cloth Museum of Jouy (Jouy-en-Josas)
- National Barn Museum of Port-Royal (Magny-les-Hameaux)
- International Museum of Naive Art
- Musée Lambinet (Versailles)
- Musée de la Grenouillère (Croissy-sur-Seine)
- Musée Fournaise (Chatou)
Artists' and writers' houses
- Maurice Denis's house, the Musée départemental Maurice Denis (Saint-Germain-en-Laye)
- André Derain's house (Chambourcy)
- Alexandre Dumas père's Château de Monte-Cristo (Port-Marly)
- Maurice Ravel's house/museum (Montfort-l'Amaury)
- Jean-Claude Richard's family estate (Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche)
- Elsa Triolet-Aragon's house (Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines)
- Ivan Turgenev House (Bougival)
- Émile Zola's house (Médan)
Parks and gardens
- Chèvreloup Arboretum (Rocquencourt)
- Marly Estate (Marly-le-Roi)
- Vaux-sur-Seine Castle Garden (Vaux-sur-Seine)
- The King's Vegetable Garden (Versailles)
- Outdoor and entertainment base of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (Trappes)
The Grand Trianon
The Venus of Brassempouy from the collection of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye
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Politics
In both local and national elections, the department generally supports centre-right political candidates. Michel Rocard, who served as Prime Minister of France from 1988 to 1991 under President François Mitterrand, was an MP for the department in the Socialist Party. The president of the Departmental Council is Pierre Bédier, first elected in 2014.
Presidential elections 2nd round
| Election | Winning candidate | Party | % | 2nd place candidate | Party | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022[9] | Emmanuel Macron | LREM | 71.05 | Marine Le Pen | FN | 28.95 | |
| 2017[10] | Emmanuel Macron | LREM | 77.15 | Marine Le Pen | FN | 22.85 | |
| 2012 | Nicolas Sarkozy | UMP | 54.30 | François Hollande | PS | 45.70 | |
| 2007 | Nicolas Sarkozy | UMP | 58.71 | Ségolène Royal | PS | 41.29 | |
| 2002[10] | Jacques Chirac | RPR | 85.59 | Jean-Marie Le Pen | FN | 14.41 | |
| 1995[11] | Jacques Chirac | RPR | 60.64 | Lionel Jospin | PS | 39.36 | |
Members of the National Assembly
In the 2024 legislative election, Yvelines elected the following representatives to the National Assembly:
Senators
In the Senate, Yvelines is represented by:
- Toine Bourrat (DVD), since 2020
- Marta de Cidrac (LR), since 2017
- Gérard Larcher (LR), since 2007 (President of the Senate since 2014)
- Michel Laugier (UDI), since 2017
- Martin Lévrier (REM), since 2017
- Sophie Primas (LR), since 2011