Cher (department)

Department of France

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Department in Centre-Val de Loire, France

Flag

Coat of arms

Location of Cher in France

Coordinates: ^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries and lakes, ponds and glaciers larger than 1 km²

Cher (/ʃɛər/ shair; French: [ʃɛʁ]; Berrichon: Char) is a department in central France, part of the Centre-Val de Loire region. Named after the river Cher, its prefecture is Bourges. In 2019, it had a population of 302,306.^[3]

History

Cher is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. Most of it was created, along with the adjacent department of Indre from the former province of Berry. The southeastern corner of the department, however, was part of the Duchy of Bourbon.

Geography

The department is part of the current administrative region of Centre-Val de Loire. It is surrounded by the departments of Indre, Loir-et-Cher, Loiret, Nièvre, Allier, and Creuse.

Principal towns

The most populous commune is Bourges, the prefecture. As of 2019, there are 8 communes with more than 5,000 inhabitants:^[3]

Commune	Population (2019)
Bourges	64,541
Vierzon	25,464
Saint-Doulchard	9,607
Saint-Amand-Montrond	9,488
Mehun-sur-Yèvre	6,555
Saint-Florent-sur-Cher	6,442
Aubigny-sur-Nère	5,502
Saint-Germain-du-Puy	5,041

Demographics

The inhabitants of the department are called Chériens or Berrichons after the former province of Berry.^[4]

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1791	207,541	—
1801	217,785	+0.48%
1806	228,158	+0.93%
1821	239,561	+0.33%
1831	256,059	+0.67%
1841	273,645	+0.67%
1851	306,261	+1.13%
1861	323,393	+0.55%
1872	335,392	+0.33%
1881	351,405	+0.52%
1891	359,276	+0.22%
1901	345,543	−0.39%
1911	337,810	−0.23%
1921	304,800	−1.02%

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1931	293,918	−0.36%
1936	288,695	−0.36%
1946	286,070	−0.09%
1954	284,376	−0.07%
1962	293,514	+0.40%
1968	304,601	+0.62%
1975	316,350	+0.54%
1982	320,174	+0.17%
1990	321,559	+0.05%
1999	314,428	−0.25%
2006	314,676	+0.01%
2011	311,694	−0.19%
2016	307,110	−0.30%

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

Sources:^[5]^[6]

Politics

The President of the General Council is Jacques Fleury of The Republicans, elected in July 2021.^[7]

Party		seats
	Union for a Popular Movement	10
•	Socialist Party	9
•	French Communist Party	7
	Miscellaneous Right	5
•	Miscellaneous Left	4

Current National Assembly representatives

	Member^[8]	Party
1st	François Cormier-Bouligeon	La République En Marche!
2nd	Nadia Essayan	MoDem
3rd	Loïc Kervran	La République En Marche!

Tourism

The Bourges Cathedral of St. Étienne is a major tourist attraction.

Languages

The historical languages are Berrichon and the northern version of Bourbonnais. These are both dialects of French, or the Langues d'oïl. They are named respectively after the former Province of Berry and the former Duchy of Bourbon. Some 11 communes in the extreme South used to speak Occitan.

The old dialects were in widespread use until the middle decades of the twentieth century and incorporated major regional variations within the department, influenced by the dialects of adjacent regions near the departmental frontiers. During the twentieth century government educational policy promoted a more standardised version of the French language.

In the extreme south of the department influence from the southern Occitan language begins to appear, with "chambrat" being used in place of "grenier a foin" (hayloft), "betoulle" in place of "bouleau" (birch tree) and "aigue" in place of "eau" (water).

References

^ "Répertoire national des élus: les conseillers départementaux". data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises (in French). 4 May 2022.
^ "Téléchargement du fichier d'ensemble des populations légales en 2021". The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 28 December 2023.
^ ^a ^b Populations légales 2019: 18 Cher, INSEE
^ Cher, habitants.fr
^ "Historique du Cher". Le SPLAF.
^ "Évolution et structure de la population en 2016". INSEE.
^ Simon, Frank (1 July 2021). "Politique - Jacques Fleury, élu président du conseil départemental du Cher". leberry.fr (in French). Retrieved 7 July 2022.
^ Nationale, Assemblée. "Assemblée nationale ~ Les députés, le vote de la loi, le Parlement français". Assemblée nationale.