This statistic shows the ten largest cities in France as of 2022. In 2022, around 2.11 million people lived in Paris, making it the largest city in France.

Paris was in 2022 the most populated city in France with over *** million inhabitants. Marseille was the second most important city in terms of inhabitants, and Lyon, the third. With ******* inhabitants, Lille was the tenth most populated city in France.

Population in largest city in France was reported at 11276701 in 2024, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. France - Population in largest city - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on October of 2025.

Population in the largest city (% of urban population) in France was reported at 20.06 % in 2024, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. France - Population in the largest city - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on October of 2025.

By 1800, London had grown to be the largest city in Western Europe with just under one million inhabitants. Paris was now the second largest city, with over half a million people, and Naples was the third largest city with 450 thousand people. The only other cities with over two hundred thousand inhabitants at this time were Vienna, Amsterdam and Dublin. Another noticeable development is the inclusion of many more northern cities from a wider variety of countries. The dominance of cities from France and Mediterranean countries was no longer the case, and the dispersal of European populations in 1800 was much closer to how it is today, more than two centuries later.

France FR: Population in Largest City data was reported at 10,844,847.000 Person in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 10,789,031.000 Person for 2016. France FR: Population in Largest City data is updated yearly, averaging 9,226,364.500 Person from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 10,844,847.000 Person in 2017 and a record low of 7,410,735.000 Person in 1960. France FR: Population in Largest City data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s France – Table FR.World Bank: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Population in largest city is the urban population living in the country's largest metropolitan area.; ; United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects.; ;

France FR: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data was reported at 20.512 % in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 20.490 % for 2016. France FR: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data is updated yearly, averaging 21.394 % from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 25.582 % in 1960 and a record low of 20.472 % in 2014. France FR: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s France – Table FR.World Bank: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Population in largest city is the percentage of a country's urban population living in that country's largest metropolitan area.; ; United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects.; Weighted Average;

In 2025, the Ile-de-France region, sometimes called the Paris region, was the most populous in France. It is located in the northern part of France, divided into eight departments and crossed by the Seine River. The region contains Paris, its large suburbs, and several rural areas. The total population in metropolitan France was estimated at around ** million inhabitants. In the DOM (Overseas Department), France had more than *** million citizens spread over the islands of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion, Mayotte, and the South American territory of French Guiana. Ile-de-France: the most populous region in France According to the source, more than ** million French citizens lived in the Ile-de-France region. Ile-de-France was followed by Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Occitanie region which is in the Southern part of the country. Ile-de-France is not only the most populated region in France, it is also the French region with the highest population density. In 2020, there were ******* residents per square kilometer in Ile-de-France compared to ***** for Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, the second most populated region in France. More than two million people were living in the city of Paris in 2025. Thus, the metropolitan area outside the city of Paris, called the suburbs or banlieue in French, had more than ten million inhabitants. Ile-de-France concentrates the majority of the country’s economic and political activities. An urban population In 2024, the total population of France amounted to over 68 million. The population in the country has increased since the mid-2000s. As well as the other European countries, France is experiencing urbanization. In 2023, more than ** percent of the French population lived in cities. This phenomenon shapes France’s geography.

View yearly updates and historical trends for France Population in the Largest City. Source: World Bank. Track economic data with YCharts analytics.

It is estimated that the largest cities in Western Europe in 1330 were Paris and Granada. At this time, Paris was the seat of power in northern France, while Granada had become the largest multicultural city in southern Spain, controlled by the Muslim, Nasrid Kingdom during Spain's Reconquista period. The next three largest cities were Venice, Genoa and Milan, all in northern Italy, renowned as important trading cities during the middle ages. In October 1347, the first wave of the Black Death had arrived in Sicily and then began spreading throughout Europe, decimating the population.

In 2019, Rennes, the prefecture of the Bretagne region, was also the largest city in the region in terms of population. It was indeed home to ******* inhabitants that year. The second most populous city in Bretagne was Brest, with nearly ******* inhabitants, followed by Quimper (****** inhabitants), and Lorient (****** inhabitants). In 2022, *** million people where living in Bretagne.

Urban population growth has been constant for several decades in France. Between 1960 and 2023, it rose from 61.88 percent to 81.78 percent. The phenomenon of urbanization was more significant in the 1960s. Indeed, over this period, the rate of the French population living in cities increased by 10 points. The evolution was more weighted over the next 50 years, rising from 71.06 percent in 1970 to 80.98 percent in 2020.An increase in urbanization was accompanied over the same period by a sharp rise in the overall French population, from 55.57 million inhabitants in 1982 to around 68 million in 2024. Paris, an urban giant in France Like in the United Kingdom, the French-style centralized system has led to a high concentration of population around economic, financial, cultural and political centers, all located in the British and French capitals. London and Paris (and its conurbation) are among the largest urban centers on the continent, with Moscow being the most populous. This centralization of power has led to a very heterogenous distribution of population density. The Paris region has a density of more than 1000 inhabitants per km², which is ten times higher than the Haut-de-France region, the second densest region in Metropolitan France.This centralization of power attracts a strong French and foreign workforce. The French capital is by far the most populated city in France. If solely the municipality of Paris is taken into account, it had more than 2 million inhabitants in 2019, which is more than twice as many as in Marseille and four times as many as in Lyon, the country's second and third most populous cities. Future challenges for French cities Access to employment is no longer the only reason to settle in a town. Other factors come into play in the life choices of city dwellers. In 2019, more than 90% of the French estimated that the presence of green areas was important to settle or not in a district. The pollution level of the city was also considered in the choice of the city. In order to address these pollution problems, municipalities must resolve transportation issues on their own territory. Previously the king of the town, the car is increasingly losing ground to public transport in urban areas. Cities like Paris are relying more on public transport. Between 2011 and 2016, RATP and SNCF have built more than 60 kilometers of tramway tracks . Moreover, the construction of additional train and metro lines in the Grand Paris project aimed at better connecting the suburbs to each other without passing through intramural Paris.Making it easier to travel by bicycle is one of the options chosen by many conurbations to relieve congestion in their cities. Since the early 2000s, self-service bicycles have been a great success in France with more than 2400 bicycles available in Toulouse or 4000 in Lyon in 2017. A source of much tension between motorists, municipalities and cyclists, the sharing of the road between 4 and 2 wheelers has, however, been widely developed. In Strasbourg, for example, the municipality had around 1.04 metres of cycle lanes per inhabitant in 2017, the highest rate in France. However, the layout of cycle paths can be perilous and a majority of cyclists in France still feel unsafe on the road.

In 1500, the largest city was Paris, with an estimated 225 thousand inhabitants, almost double the population of the second-largest city, Naples. As in 1330, Venice and Milan remain the third and fourth largest cities in Western Europe, however Genoa's population almost halved from 1330 until 1500, as it was struck heavily by the bubonic plague in the mid-1300s. In lists prior to this, the largest cities were generally in Spain and Italy, however, as time progressed, the largest populations could be found more often in Italy and France. The year 1500 is around the beginning of what we now consider modern history, a time that saw the birth of many European empires and inter-continental globalization.

Between 1500 and 1800, London grew to be the largest city in Western Europe, with its population growing almost 22 times larger in this period. London would eventually overtake Constantinople as Europe's largest in the 1700s, before becoming the largest city in the world (ahead of Beijing) in the early-1800s.

The most populous cities in this period were the capitals of European empires, with Paris, Amsterdam, and Vienna growing to become the largest cities, alongside the likes of Lisbon and Madrid in Iberia, and Naples or Venice in Italy. Many of northwestern Europe's largest cities in 1500 would eventually be overtaken by others not shown here, such as the port cities of Hamburg, Marseilles or Rotterdam, or more industrial cities such as Berlin, Birmingham, and Munich.

Data set from the "table poléométrique" made in 1782 by Charles de Fourcroy. It is a data set where 109 towns in France territory are described from a morphology point of view (urban areas). Data set is based on annex of the article published by François de Dainville in Population (Grandeur et population des villes au XVIIIe siècle, Population, 1958, 13(3), pp. 459-480).

This work takes place within a PhD in archaeology and geography - UMR 8504 Géographie-cités, Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Context

[INSEE][1] is the official french institute gathering data of many types around France. It can be demographic (Births, Deaths, Population Density...), Economic (Salary, Firms by activity / size...) and more.
It can be a great help to observe and measure inequality in the french population.

Content

Four files are in the dataset :

• base_etablissement_par_tranche_effectif : give information on the number of firms in every french town, categorized by size , come from [INSEE][2].
  • CODGEO : geographique code for the town (can be joined with code_insee column from "name_geographic_information.csv')
  • LIBGEO : name of the town (in french)
  • REG : region number
  • DEP : depatment number
  • E14TST : total number of firms in the town
  • E14TS0ND : number of unknown or null size firms in the town
  • E14TS1 : number of firms with 1 to 5 employees in the town
  • E14TS6 : number of firms with 6 to 9 employees in the town
  • E14TS10 : number of firms with 10 to 19 employees in the town
  • E14TS20 : number of firms with 20 to 49 employees in the town
  • E14TS50 : number of firms with 50 to 99 employees in the town
  • E14TS100 : number of firms with 100 to 199 employees in the town
  • E14TS200 : number of firms with 200 to 499 employees in the town
  • E14TS500 : number of firms with more than 500 employees in the town

• name_geographic_information : give geographic data on french town (mainly latitude and longitude, but also region / department codes and names )

  • EU_circo : name of the European Union Circonscription
  • code_région : code of the region attached to the town
  • nom_région : name of the region attached to the town
  • chef.lieu_région : name the administrative center around the town
  • numéro_département : code of the department attached to the town
  • nom_département : name of the department attached to the town
  • préfecture : name of the local administrative division around the town
  • numéro_circonscription : number of the circumpscription
  • nom_commune : name of the town
  • codes_postaux : post-codes relative to the town
  • code_insee : unique code for the town
  • latitude : GPS latitude
  • longitude : GPS longitude
  • éloignement : i couldn't manage to figure out what was the meaning of this number

• net_salary_per_town_per_category : salaries around french town per job categories, age and sex

  • CODGEO : unique code of the town
  • LIBGEO : name of the town
  • SNHM14 : mean net salary
  • SNHMC14 : mean net salary per hour for executive
  • SNHMP14 : mean net salary per hour for middle manager
  • SNHME14 : mean net salary per hour for employee
  • SNHMO14 : mean net salary per hour for worker
  • SNHMF14 : mean net salary for women
  • SNHMFC14 : mean net salary per hour for feminin executive
  • SNHMFP14 : mean net salary per hour for feminin middle manager
  • SNHMFE14 : mean net salary per hour for feminin employee
  • SNHMFO14 : mean net salary per hour for feminin worker
  • SNHMH14 : mean net salary for man
  • SNHMHC14 : mean net salary per hour for masculin executive
  • SNHMHP14 : mean net salary per hour for masculin middle manager
  • SNHMHE14 : mean net salary per hour for masculin employee
  • SNHMHO14 : mean net salary per hour for masculin worker
  • SNHM1814 : mean net salary per hour for 18-25 years old
  • SNHM2614 : mean net salary per hour for 26-50 years old
  • SNHM5014 : mean net salary per hour for >50 years old
  • SNHMF1814 : mean net salary per hour for women between 18-25 years old
  • SNHMF2614 : mean net salary per hour for women between 26-50 years old
  • SNHMF5014 : mean net salary per hour for women >50 years old
  • SNHMH1814 : mean net salary per hour for men between 18-25 years old
  • SNHMH2614 : mean net salary per hour for men between 26-50 years old
  • SNHMH5014 : mean net salary per hour for men >50 years old

• population : [demographic][3] information in France per town, age, sex and living mode

  • NIVGEO : geographic level (arrondissement, communes...)
  • CODGEO : unique code for the town
  • LIBGEO : name of the town (might contain some utf-8 errors, this information has better quality name_geographic_information)
  • MOCO : cohabitation mode : [list and meaning available in Data description]
  • AGE80_17 : age category (slice of 5 years) | ex : 0 -> people between 0 and 4 years old
  • SEXE : sex, 1 for men | 2 for women
  • NB : Number of people in the category

• departments.geojson : contains the borders of french departments. From [Gregoire David (github)][4]

These datasets can be merged by : CODGEO = code_insee

Acknowledgements

The entire dataset has been created (and actualized) by INSEE, I just uploaded it on Kaggle after doing some jobs and checks ...

5G is finally arriving in France, with deployment in the country scheduled for November 18, 2020. 5G succeeds the previous generation of 4G, and will offer much higher speed than previously available, as well as very short latency times and an increased number of simultaneous connections possible per area covered. Marseille was the best-equipped French city with a total of 95 5G antennas, followed by Paris and Montpellier with 58 and 51 antennas, respectively.

Operators and territory coverage

As of November 2020, Orange had set up the highest number of 5G antennas under test in France. While almost the entirety of the French population was covered by mobile broadband (4G) by all four main operators, Orange was also at the top of the list in terms of territory coverage.

5G in the era of the smart city

The implementation of 5g on the French territory is one of the cornerstones of the development of the smart city and the digital transition it promotes. Indeed, open data was the most often carried out smart city project by French cities. Here again, Marseille stands out from other cities by being the most advanced French city in terms of smart city projects.

The catchment area of a city is a group of municipalities, of a single enclave and enclave, which defines the extent of the influence of a cluster of population and employment on the surrounding municipalities, this influence being measured by the intensity of commuting to work. Urban area zoning follows the zoning into urban areas in 2010. An area consists of a pole and a crown. — Poles are determined mainly on the basis of density and total population criteria, using a methodology consistent with that of the municipal density grid. A threshold of jobs is added in order to prevent essentially residential municipalities with few jobs from being considered poles. Within the pole, the most populous commune is called the center commune. If a pole sends at least 15 % of its assets to work in another pole of the same level, the two poles are associated and together form the heart of a catchment area. — Municipalities that send at least 15 % of their assets to work in the pole are the crown of the area. The definition of the largest catchment areas of cities is consistent with the definition of “cities” and “functional urban areas” used by Eurostat and the OECD to analyse the functioning of cities. Zoning into catchment areas thus facilitates international comparisons and makes it possible to visualise the influence in France of major foreign cities. For example, seven areas have a town located abroad (Bâle, Charleroi, Geneva, Lausanne, Luxembourg, Monaco and Saarbrücken). The areas are classified according to the total number of inhabitants of the area in 2017. The main thresholds selected are: Paris, 700,000 inhabitants, 200,000 inhabitants and 50,000 inhabitants. Areas whose pole is located abroad are classified in the category corresponding to their total population (French and foreign). Urban catchment areas, dated 2020, were constructed with reference to commuting known in the 2016 Census. Downloadable files provide the characteristics of the city’s catchment areas (size slice, number of municipalities) and the municipal composition of the city’s catchment areas.

The largest Western European city in 1200 was Palermo, with 150 thousand inhabitants. This is a great decrease in the number 150 years previously, where the population was 350 thousand. The city of Cordova also decreased by almost 400 thousand in this time, possibly because of the declining Arabian control and influence in the area. Seville is the third largest city on this list, although it's overall population decreased by ten thousand since 1050. The largest cities are generally in Spain or Italy, although the second largest city on this list is Paris, with 110 thousand inhabitants. In the lists that follow, Paris remains at the top as either the largest (1500 and 1650) or second largest (1330 and 1800) city in Western Europe.

The catchment area of a city is a group of municipalities, of a single enclave and enclave, which defines the extent of the influence of a cluster of population and employment on the surrounding municipalities, this influence being measured by the intensity of commuting to work. Urban area zoning follows the zoning into urban areas in 2010. An area consists of a pole and a crown. — Poles are determined mainly on the basis of density and total population criteria, using a methodology consistent with that of the municipal density grid. A threshold of jobs is added in order to prevent essentially residential municipalities with few jobs from being considered poles. Within the pole, the most populous commune is called the center commune. If a pole sends at least 15 % of its assets to work in another pole of the same level, the two poles are associated and together form the heart of a catchment area. — Municipalities that send at least 15 % of their assets to work in the pole are the crown of the area. The definition of the largest catchment areas of cities is consistent with the definition of “cities” and “functional urban areas” used by Eurostat and the OECD to analyse the functioning of cities. Zoning into catchment areas thus facilitates international comparisons and makes it possible to visualise the influence in France of major foreign cities. For example, seven areas have a town located abroad (Bâle, Charleroi, Geneva, Lausanne, Luxembourg, Monaco and Saarbrücken). The areas are classified according to the total number of inhabitants of the area in 2017. The main thresholds selected are: Paris, 700,000 inhabitants, 200,000 inhabitants and 50,000 inhabitants. Areas whose pole is located abroad are classified in the category corresponding to their total population (French and foreign). Urban catchment areas, dated 2020, were constructed with reference to commuting known in the 2016 Census. Downloadable files provide the characteristics of the city’s catchment areas (size slice, number of municipalities) and the municipal composition of the city’s catchment areas.