Hauts-de-Seine

Hauts-de-Seine (French pronunciation: [o d(ə) sɛn] ^ⓘ; lit. 'Seine Heights') is a department in the Île-de-France region of France. It covers Paris's western inner suburbs. It is bordered by Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne to the east, Val-d'Oise to the north, Yvelines to the west and Essonne to the south. With a population of 1,624,357 (as of 2019) and a total area of 176 square kilometres (68 square miles), it has the second highest population density among all departments of France, after Paris. It is the fifth most populous department in France. Its prefecture is Nanterre, but Boulogne-Billancourt, one of its two subprefectures, alongside Antony, has a larger population.

Hauts-de-Seine is best known for containing the modern office, cinema and shopping complex La Défense, one of Grand Paris's main economic centres and one of Europe's major business districts. Hauts-de-Seine is one of the wealthiest departments in France; it had the highest GDP per capita in France at €107,800 in 2020. Its inhabitants are called Altoséquanais (masculine) and Altoséquanaises (feminine) in French.

From 1790 to 1968, Hauts-de-Seine was part of the former department of Seine.

The Hauts-de-Seine department was created in 1968, from parts of the former departments of Seine and Seine-et-Oise. Its creation reflected the implementation of a law passed in 1964; Nanterre had already been selected as the prefecture for the new department early in 1965.

In 2016, the Departmental Council of Hauts-de-Seine voted in favour of a fusion of Hauts-de-Seine and Yvelines, its western neighbour. Following a similar vote in Yvelines, an établissement public interdépartemental was established. The fusion project was abandoned in 2021, but the cooperation between the two departments continues.

Hauts-de-Seine and two other small departments (Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne) form an inner ring around Paris, known as the Petite Couronne (literal translation: "Little Crown"). Together with the City of Paris, they are included in Greater Paris since 1 January 2016. It is the smallest department in France, followed by Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne. It is slightly smaller than Maldives.

Hauts-de-Seine comprises three departmental arrondissements and 36 communes:

Hauts-de-Seine currently has the fewest number of any communes in Metropolitan France. With only 36 communes, not including Paris which has only one commune, this makes the French department in Metropolitan France with the fewest number of communes.