be extinct within decades. Geography Nord is part of the current Hauts-de-France region and is surrounded by the French departments of Pas-de-Calais, Somme, and Aisne, as well as by Belgium and the North Sea. Its area is . It is the longest department in metropolitan France, measuring 184 km from Fort-Philippe in the north-west to Anor in the south-east. Situated in the north of the country along the western half of the Belgian frontier, the department is unusually long and narrow. The principal rivers are the following: Yser, Lys, Escaut, Scarpe, Sambre. Principal towns The most populous commune is Lille, the prefecture. With nearby Roubaix, Tourcoing and Villeneuve-d'Ascq, it constitutes the center of a cluster of industrial and former mining towns totalling slightly over a million inhabitants. As of 2019, there are 10 communes with more than 30,000 inhabitants: Demographics With a population of 2,608,346 in 2019, Nord is the department with the largest population, being approximately equal to that of Albania. Politics The President of the Departmental Council is the unaffiliated right-winger Christian Poiret. The first President of the Fifth Republic, General Charles de Gaulle, was born in Lille in the department on 22 November 1890. Presidential elections second round Current National Assembly Representatives Economy At the forefront of France's 19th century industrialisation, the area suffered severely during World War I and now faces the economic, social and environmental problems associated with the decline of coal mining with its neighbours following the earlier decline of the Lille-Roubaix textile industry. Until recently, the department was dominated economically by coal mining, which extended through the heart of the department from neighbouring Artois into central Belgium. Tourism See also Cantons of the Nord department Communes of the Nord department Arrondissements of the Nord department (France) French Flemish Université Lille Nord de France References External links Prefecture website Departmental Council website 1790 establishments in France Departments of Hauts-de-France States and territories established in 1790