Toulouse is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne. It is the fourth-largest city in France, with 493,465 inhabitants within its municipal boundaries (2019 census), after Paris, Marseille and Lyon, its metropolitan area has a population of 1,454,158 inhabitants (2019 census). Toulouse is the central city of one of the 20 French Métropoles, with one of the three strongest demographic growth (2013-2019).