Lille is a city in the North of France. It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole. Lille is situated in French Flanders, on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium. It is the capital of the Nord-Pas de Calais region and the prefecture of the Nord department.The city of Lille, to which the previously independent town of Lomme was annexed on 27 February 2000, had a population of 226,827 as recorded by the 2009 census. However, Lille Métropole, which also includes Roubaix, Tourcoing and numerous suburban communities, had a population of 1,091,438. The Eurometropolis Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai, which also includes the Belgian cities of Kortrijk, Tournai and Mouscron, had 2,155,161 residents in 2008. It is the fifth-largest urban area in France after Paris, Lyon, Marseille, and Toulouse.