Saône-et-Loire (French pronunciation: [sonelwaʁ]; Arpitan: Sona-et-Lêre) is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in France. It is named after the rivers Saône and Loire, between which it lies, in the country's central-eastern part.

Saône-et-Loire is Bourgogne-Franche-Comté's most populous department with a population of 551,493 as of 2019. It is also its southernmost department, as it is situated on the regional border with Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Saône-et-Loire's prefecture is Mâcon, with subprefectures in Autun, Chalon-sur-Saône, Charolles and Louhans. Its INSEE and postcode number is 71.

When it was formed during the French Revolution, as of March 4, 1790 in fulfillment of the law of December 22, 1789, the new department combined parts of the provinces of southern Burgundy and Bresse, uniting lands that had no previous common history nor political unity and which have no true geographical unity. Thus its history is that of Burgundy, and is especially to be found in the local histories of Autun, Mâcon, Chalon-sur-Saône, Charolles and Louhans.

Saône-et-Loire is the seventh largest department of France. It is part of the region Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. In the west, the department is composed of the hills of the Autunois, the region around Autun, in the southwest the Charollais, and the Mâconnais in the south.

In the centre, the department is traversed from north to south by the Saône in its wide plain; the Saône is a tributary of the River Rhône that joins it at Lyon and thus is connected to the Mediterranean Sea. The source of the Loire, is south of the department, in the department of Ardèche. It then makes its way in the opposite direction, forming the southwest border of the department, and eventually draining into the Atlantic Ocean. The Canal du Centre links the Saône to the Loire between Chalon-sur-Saône and Digoin, thereby linking the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, the department occupies the northern part of the plain of Bresse. In the west, its industrial heart is in Le Creusot and Montceau-les-Mines, formerly noted for their coal mines and metallurgy.

The most populous commune is Chalon-sur-Saône; the prefecture Mâcon is the second-most populous. As of 2019, there are 5 communes with more than 10,000 inhabitants:

Commune	Population (2019)
Chalon-sur-Saône	45,056
Mâcon	33,908
Le Creusot	21,269
Montceau-les-Mines	17,678
Autun	12,987

The department consists of five arrondissements:

• Autun
• Chalon-sur-Saône
• Charolles
• Louhans
• Mâcon

There are 29 cantons in the department and 565 communes.

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1801 452,673 —     1806 471,236 +0.81% 1821 498,057 +0.37% 1831 524,180 +0.51% 1841 551,543 +0.51% 1851 574,720 +0.41% 1861 582,137 +0.13% 1872 598,344 +0.25% 1881 625,589 +0.50% 1891 619,523 −0.10% 1901 620,360 +0.01% 1911 604,446 −0.26% 1921 554,816 −0.85%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1931 538,741 −0.29% 1936 525,676 −0.49% 1946 506,749 −0.37% 1954 511,182 +0.11% 1962 535,772 +0.59% 1968 550,364 +0.45% 1975 569,810 +0.50% 1982 571,852 +0.05% 1990 559,413 −0.27% 1999 544,893 −0.29% 2006 549,359 +0.12% 2011 555,999 +0.24% 2016 555,023 −0.04%
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Sources:

The president of the Departmental Council is André Accary, elected in 2015.

Constituency		Member	Party
	Saône-et-Loire's 1st constituency	Benjamin Dirx	La République En Marche!
	Saône-et-Loire's 2nd constituency	Josiane Corneloup	The Republicans
	Saône-et-Loire's 3rd constituency	Rémy Rebeyrotte	La République En Marche!
	Saône-et-Loire's 4th constituency	Cécile Untermaier	Socialist Party
	Saône-et-Loire's 5th constituency	Raphaël Gauvain	La République En Marche!

Touristic sites :

• Roche de Solutré,
• Abbaye de Cluny,
• Taizé and Taizé Community,
• Paray-le-Monial,
• La Clayette,
• Dompierre-les-Ormes (Galerie européenne de la forêt et du bois, Arboretum de Pézanin).

• 
  Lamartine's statue in Mâcon
• 
  Temple of Janus in Autun
• 
  Cluny Abbey
• 
  Chalon-sur-Saône
• 
  Tournus
• 
  Lake of Pézanin
• 
  Château de La Clayette

• Mâcon - Capital
• Cantons of the Saône-et-Loire department
• Communes of the Saône-et-Loire department
• Arrondissements of the Saône-et-Loire department
• Chizerots
• Les Télots Mine
• Charolais-Brionnais region, known for its beef and its goats' cheese

• (in French) Departmental Council website
• (in French) Prefecture website