In France, an
urban unit (
fr: "unité urbaine") is a statistical area defined by
INSEE, the French national statistics office, for the measurement of contiguously built-up areas. According to the INSEE definition , an "unité urbaine" is a
commune alone or a grouping of communes which: a) form a single unbroken spread of urban development, with no distance between habitations greater than 200 m and b) have altogether a population greater than 2,000 inhabitants. Communes not belonging to an
unité urbaine are considered rural.