Editing Charente (section)

==Geography==
It is largely part of the [[Aquitaine Basin]], with the northeastern part in the [[Massif Central]]. The [[Charente (river)|Charente]] flows through it and gave its name to the department, along with [[Charente-Maritime]]. It is composed with the historical region of [[Angoumois]] and contains part of the regions of [[Saintonge (region)|Saintonge]], [[Limousin (region)|Limousin]], [[Périgord]] and [[Poitou]].

The department is part of the current [[regions of France|region]] of [[Nouvelle-Aquitaine]]. It is surrounded by the departments of [[Charente-Maritime]], [[Dordogne]], [[Haute-Vienne]], [[Vienne (department)|Vienne]] and [[Deux-Sèvres]]. The southernmost “major” town (town with over 1,000 people) in the Charente is [[Chalais, Charente|Chalais]].

===Principal towns===
The most populous commune is [[Angoulême]], the prefecture. As of 2019, there are nine communes with more than 5,000 inhabitants:<ref name=pop2019/>

{| class=wikitable
! Commune
! Population (2019)
|-
| [[Angoulême]]
| style="text-align: center;" | 41,603
|-
| [[Cognac (commune)|Cognac]]
| style="text-align: center;" | 18,670
|-
| [[Soyaux]]
| style="text-align: center;" | 9,761
|-
| [[La Couronne, Charente|La Couronne]]
| style="text-align: center;" | 7,764
|-
| [[Saint-Yrieix-sur-Charente]]
| style="text-align: center;" | 7,381
|-
| [[Ruelle-sur-Touvre]]
| style="text-align: center;" | 7,305
|-
| [[Gond-Pontouvre]]
| style="text-align: center;" | 6,119
|-
| [[L'Isle-d'Espagnac]]
| style="text-align: center;" | 5,626
|-
| [[Champniers, Charente|Champniers]]
| style="text-align: center;" | 5,149
|}