User:Awil362/MontpellierEconomy

Montpellier is the largest city in the Montpellier Mediterranean Metropolis, which employs over 170,000 workers. The metropolis has over 21,000 active companies.

Montpellier is a modern city which has a very diverse economy. The city's industry specializes in the tertiary sector, with many businesses in pharmacy, biotechnology, and multimedia. CHU Montpellier is the largest employer in the city, with over 11,000 staff members. Dell's French headquarters is located in Montpellier. IBM has over 1000 employees in the city. The city is also a leader in France in regards to startup companies. 31 startup companies in Montpellier raised over $100,000 to start their businesses in 2015 alone. Montpellier also houses the headquarters of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Montpellier. The Airport of Montpellier and the railway company Eurogare each employ over 4,000 staff in Montpellier.

Montpellier contains around 70,000 students in it's two universities, 10,000 of which are foreign students. Montpellier ranks as the 3rd highest city in terms of student population in France. The University of Montpellier, the larger of the city's two universities, employs over 4800 staff members making it one of the largest employers in the city.

Although Montpellier has undergone massive urbanization the area still has 364 hectares of agricultural zones. Because of increased droughts and higher temperatures in the area, Montpellier's agriculture will be changing from a monoculture to an agroforest over the next 25 years. This presents interesting challenges for those in this industry, and if the droughts continue to be a problem it may be a problem for the city's economy. Montpellier also relies heavily on viticulture to help bring tourists to the city. In particular Languedoc wines can only be mulled in the area surrounding Montpellier, so it brings in heavy tourism.

Tourism is a huge part of the city's economy. Being located on the Mediterranean Sea, and getting around 225 days of sunshine per year are huge draws for the city. Montpellier averages over 5,000,000 visitors each year, with an average stay of about two days. The Lunaret Zoo is the most visited area by tourists in Montpellier, attracting over 500,000 people per year. Montpellier is also a European leader for business conferences, hosting over 600,000 attendees per year.

Despite the large corporations calling Montpellier home, unemployment is a massive problem in the city with almost 15% of the population over the age of 15 unemployed, with that number being over 20% in socio-professional fields. On top of this Montpellier is a very young city, with much of it's population attending university and 50% of it's population being less that 34 years old. The rate of youth unemployment is even larger at 37%, 12% higher than the national average of France.