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Pas-de-Calais Pas-Calés
Department
Prefecture building of the Pas-de-Calais department, in Arras
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Pas-de-Calais in France
Coordinates: 50°57′N 1°51′E / 50.950°N 1.850°E / 50.950; 1.850
Country	France
Region	Hauts-de-France
Prefecture	Arras
Subprefectures	Béthune, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Calais, Lens, Montreuil, Saint-Omer
Government
• Body	Departmental Council of Pas-de-Calais
• President of the Departmental Council	Jean-Claude Leroy[1]
Area 1
• Total	6,706 km2 (2,589 sq mi)
Population  (2021)[2]
• Total	1,461,441
• Rank	7th
• Density	220/km2 (560/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	FR-62
Department number	62
Arrondissements	7
Cantons	39
Communes	890
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2

The Pas-de-Calais (French: [pɑ d(ə) kalɛ] ^ⓘ, "strait of Calais"; Picard: Pas-Calés; Dutch: Nauw van Calais) is a department in north-eastern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments of France, with 890, and is the 8th most populous. It had a population of 1,465,278 in 2019.^[3] The Calais Passage connects to the Port of Calais on the English Channel. The Pas-de-Calais borders the departments of Nord and Somme and is connected to the English county of Kent via the Channel Tunnel.^[4]

Inhabited since prehistoric times, the Pas-de-Calais region was populated in turn by the Celtic Belgae, the Romans, the Germanic Franks and the Alemanni. During the fourth and fifth centuries, the Roman practice of co-opting Germanic tribes to provide military and defence services along the route from Boulogne-sur-Mer to Cologne created a Germanic-Romance linguistic border in the region that persisted until the eighth century.

Saxon colonization into the region from the fifth to the eighth centuries likely extended the linguistic border somewhat south and west so that by the ninth century most inhabitants north of the line between Béthune and Berck spoke a dialect of Middle Dutch, while the inhabitants to the south spoke Picard, a variety of Romance dialects.

This linguistic border is still evident today in the toponyms and patronyms of the region. Beginning in the ninth century, the linguistic border began a steady move to north and the east, and by the end of the 15th century Romance dialects had completely displaced those of Dutch.

Pas-de-Calais is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Calaisis, formerly English, Boulonnais, Ponthieu and Artois, this last formerly part of the Spanish Netherlands.

Some of the costliest battles of World War I were fought in the region. The Canadian National Vimy Memorial, eight kilometres from Arras, commemorates the Battle of Vimy Ridge assault during the Battle of Arras (1917) and is Canada's most important memorial in Europe to its fallen soldiers.^[5]

Pas-de-Calais was also the target of Operation Fortitude during World War II, which was an Allied plan to deceive the Germans that the invasion of Europe at D-Day was to occur here, rather than in Normandy.^[6]

Pas-de-Calais is in the current region of Hauts-de-France and is surrounded by the departments of Nord and Somme, the English Channel, and the North Sea. It shares a maritime border with the English county of Kent in the United Kingdom halfway through the Channel Tunnel.

The principal rivers are the following:

Its principal towns are, on the coast, Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer, and in Artois, Arras, Lens, Liévin, and Béthune. The most populous commune is Calais; the prefecture Arras is the second-most populous. As of 2019, there are 10 communes with more than 15,000 inhabitants:^[3]

The economy of the department was long dependent on mining, primarily the coal mines near the town of Lens, Pas-de-Calais where coal was discovered in 1849.^[7] However, since World War II, the economy has become more diversified.

The inhabitants of the department are called Pas-de-Calaisiens.

Pas-de-Calais is one of the most densely populated departments of France, but has no cities with over 100,000 residents: Calais has about 73,000 inhabitants. The remaining population is primarily concentrated along the border with the department of Nord in the mining district, where a string of small towns constitutes an urban area with a population of about 1.2 million. The centre and south of the department are more rural, but still quite heavily populated, with many villages and small towns.

Although the department saw some of the heaviest fighting of World War I, its population rebounded quickly after both world wars. However, many of the mining towns have seen dramatic decreases in population, some up to half of their population.

Population development since 1801:

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1801 534,416 —     1821 626,571 +0.80% 1831 655,215 +0.45% 1841 685,021 +0.45% 1851 692,994 +0.12% 1861 724,338 +0.44% 1872 761,158 +0.45% 1881 819,022 +0.82% 1891 874,364 +0.66% 1901 955,391 +0.89% 1911 1,068,155 +1.12% 1921 989,967 −0.76% 1931 1,205,191 +1.99%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1936 1,179,467 −0.43% 1946 1,168,545 −0.09% 1954 1,276,833 +1.11% 1962 1,366,282 +0.85% 1968 1,397,159 +0.37% 1975 1,402,295 +0.05% 1982 1,412,413 +0.10% 1990 1,433,203 +0.18% 1999 1,441,568 +0.06% 2006 1,453,387 +0.12% 2011 1,462,807 +0.13% 2016 1,470,725 +0.11%
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Sources:[8][9]

The president of the Departmental Council is Jean-Claude Leroy, elected in 2017.

In the second round of the French presidential elections of 2017 Pas-de-Calais was one of only two departments in which the candidate of the Front National, Marine Le Pen, received a majority of the votes cast: 52.06%.^[10]

There are currently two public universities in the department. Although it is one of the most populous departments of France, Pas-de-Calais did not contain a university until 1991 when the French government created two universities: ULCO (Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale)^[14] on the western part of the department, and Université d'Artois^[15] on the eastern part.

• 
  Mussel aquaculture in Wissant
• 
  Cap Gris Nez
• 
  Cap Blanc Nez
• 
  Boulogne-sur-Mer
• 
  Nausicaä
• 
  Le Touquet
• 
  Grand-Place of Arras
• 
  Notre Dame de Lorette
• 
  Canadian National Vimy Memorial, 11 kilometres from Arras
• 
  Liberty Leading the People on permanent display in Louvre-Lens since 2012
• 
  Blockhaus d'Éperlecques
• 
  Todt Battery, Audinghen

• Cantons of the Pas-de-Calais department
• Communes of the Pas-de-Calais department
• Arrondissements of the Pas-de-Calais department
• Battle of Vimy Ridge
• 7 Valleys Pas-de-Calais
• Achicourt station

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pas-de-Calais.

• (in French) A whole wiki about the Pas-de-Calais
• (in French) Prefecture website
• (in French) Departmental Council website
• (in English) Official Tourist website
• (in English) Short regional tourism guide
• (in English) Coats of arms of the municipalities in Pas-de-Calais