The Limousin region is essentially made up of two historical French provinces:
- Limousin: the Corrèze department in its entirety, the central and southeastern part of Haute-Vienne. The province of Limousin is entirely contained inside the Limousin region.
- Marche: most part of Creuse department and northeastern part of Haute-Vienne. The province of Marche is almost entirely contained inside the Limousin region, with only a small part of Marche being now in the Centre region.
Beside these two main provinces, we also find inside the Limousin region small parts of other provinces:
- Angoumois: extreme south-west of Haute-Vienne
- Poito: extreme west of Haute-Vienne
- Auvergne: extreme east of Creuse
- Berry: extreme north of Creuse
The province of Limousin is the most populated part of the Limousin region. When the Limousin region was created, it was decided to call it Limousin only, despite the fact that it also includes the province of Marche. Limoges, the historical capital and largest city of the province of Limousin, was chosen as the capital of the Limousin region.
