The geography of French creative class: An exploratory spatial data analysis

This paper analyses the creative class geography in France, in 2006. This geography is seen here through the lens of Explanatory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA). This method brings originality to the question of creative people geography in addition to the spatial context, France, where this question hasn’t been deepened yet. Methodology allows measurement of spatial agglomeration degree and identification of creative people location patterns. First, by computing locational Gini index and Moran’s I statistic of global spatial autocorrelation. These measures provide an overview of the spatial distribution of creative people among French districts and the existence of some hotspot regions with strong dynamic of creative people accumulation. Second, Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) tools, such as Moran scatterplot and LISA statistics, allow to identify district clusters of creative people. It leads to evidence that creative people are unevenly geographically distributed across French districts. District clusters of creative occupations result from spreading of French largest cities influence.