La Défense is Europe's largest purpose-built business district, covering 560 hectares (1,400 acres), for 180,000 daily workers,[1][2] with 72 glass and steel buildings (of which 20 are completed skyscrapers, out of 24 in the Paris region), and 3,500,000 square metres (38,000,000 sq ft) of office space.

Westfield Les Quatre Temps, a large shopping mall in La Défense, has 220 stores, 48 restaurants and a 24-screen movie theatre.

In September 1958, the Public Establishment for Installation of La Défense [fr] (EPAD) buildings (of which the Esso Tower was the first) were constructed and began to slowly replace the city's factories, shanties, and even a few farms.

In 1982, the EPAD launched the Tête Défense competition to find a monument to complete the Axe historique, which eventually led to the construction of Grande Arche at the west end of the quarter.

During the same period, hotels were constructed, the CNIT was restructured, and in 1992, Line 1 of the Paris Métro was extended to La Défense, which made the area readily accessible to more of the city.

The free concert, titled Paris la Défense, attracted two million spectators, stretching all the way back to the Arc de Triomphe.

Major corporations headquartered at La Défense include Neuf Cegetel, Société Générale, TotalEnergies, Aventis, Areva, and Arcelor.

This important modernisation plan has to give a new dimension to the district and focuses on four main axes: regenerate outdated skyscrapers, allow new buildings, improve the balance between offices and residential housing, and make the transport of local employees from their homes to La Défense easier.

the government is trying to balance tertiary sector employment in the whole region again, because today La Défense concentrates a major part of those jobs; and traffic is already saturated in the district, while it would need huge investments to extend transport infrastructures.