This statistic shows the ten largest cities in France as of 2021. In 2021, around 2.13 million people lived in Paris, making it the largest city in France.

Paris was in 2020 the most populated city in France with over two million inhabitants. Marseille was the second most important city in terms of inhabitants and Lyon, the third. With 236,234 inhabitants, Lille was the tenth most populated city in France.

Urban population growth has been constant for several decades in France. Between 1960 and 2022, it rose from 61.88 percent to 81.51 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 ten 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 two 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 2,400 bicycles available in Toulouse or 4,000 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.

All cities with a population > 1000 or seats of adm div (ca 80.000)Sources and ContributionsSources : GeoNames is aggregating over hundred different data sources. Ambassadors : GeoNames Ambassadors help in many countries. Wiki : A wiki allows to view the data and quickly fix error and add missing places. Donations and Sponsoring : Costs for running GeoNames are covered by donations and sponsoring.Enrichment:add country name

This dataset is about cities and is filtered where the country includes France, featuring 3 columns: city, country, and population. The preview is ordered by population (descending).

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 65 million inhabitants. In the DOM (Overseas Department), France had more than two million citizens spread over the islands of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion, Mayotte, and the South American territory of French Guyana. Ile-de-France: most populous region in France According to the source, more than 12 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 1,021.6 residents per square kilometer in Ile-de-France compared to 115.9 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 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 increased since the mid-2000s. As well as the other European countries, France is experiencing urbanization. In 2023, more than 81 percent of the French population lived in cities. This phenomenon shapes France’s geography.

Cleanup of french city's population dataset :

https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/3698339

This dataset is about cities and is filtered where the country includes France, featuring 7 columns including city, continent, country, latitude, and longitude. The preview is ordered by population (descending).

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.

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.

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.

Paris is a city. It is in France and has a population of 2,110,694 people.

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 220,488 inhabitants that year. The second most populous city in Bretagne was Brest, with nearly 140,000 inhabitants, followed by Quimper (63,283 inhabitants), and Lorient (57,246 inhabitants). In 2022, 3.4 million people where living in Bretagne.

Contains data from the World Bank's data portal. There is also a consolidated country dataset on HDX.

Cities can be tremendously efficient. It is easier to provide water and sanitation to people living closer together, while access to health, education, and other social and cultural services is also much more readily available. However, as cities grow, the cost of meeting basic needs increases, as does the strain on the environment and natural resources. Data on urbanization, traffic and congestion, and air pollution are from the United Nations Population Division, World Health Organization, International Road Federation, World Resources Institute, and other sources.

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. The 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. https://www.insee.fr/fr/information/4803954

cities in France. name, office head of government, Mayor, image, Area, date founded, Elevation, Country, administrative division, continent, latitude, waterbody, longitude, Website, population, Demonym

Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the Lyon, France metro area from 1950 to 2025. United Nations population projections are also included through the year 2035.

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.

INSEE zoning comprising a commune or a group of municipalities which includes in its territory a built-up area of at least 2,000 inhabitants where no dwelling is separated from the nearest to more than 200 metres. In addition, each municipality concerned has more than half of its population in this built-up area. The concept of urban unity is based on the continuity of the building and the number of inhabitants. An urban unit is a municipality or group of municipalities with a continuous building area (no cut-off of more than 200 metres between two buildings) with at least 2,000 inhabitants.

If the urban unit is located in a single municipality, it is referred to as an isolated city. If the urban unit extends over several municipalities, and each of these municipalities concentrates more than half of its population in the continuous built-up area, it is referred to as a multi-communal agglomeration. Code “size of the urban unit” (based on the municipal population in the 2007 census for UU 2010): 0-Rural 1-Urban units from 2 000 to 4 999 inhabitants 2-Urban units from 5,000 to 9,999 inhabitants 3-Urban units from 10,000 to 19,999 inhabitants 4-Urban units from 20,000 to 49,999 inhabitants 5-Urban units from 50,000 to 99,999 inhabitants 6-Urban units from 100,000 to 199 999 inhabitants 7-Urban units from 200 000 to 1,999 999 inhabitants 8-Agglomeration of Paris

Code “Urban unit type” 0-Unit of rural municipalities of the department 1-Single city or single-community urban unit 2-Intra-departmental agglomeration 3-Inter-departmental agglomeration 4-Interregional agglomeration 5-International agglomeration

The National Action Plan Heart of City meets a dual ambition: to improve the living conditions of the inhabitants of medium-sized cities and to strengthen their role as a driving force in the development of the territory. Signs of this essential structuring role: 23 % of the French population live in medium-sized cities," and 26 % of total employment in France is concentrated. These cities are sources of economic, heritage, cultural and social dynamism, but sometimes face difficulties of attractiveness, degraded housing or commercial vitality, for example. Developed in consultation with elected representatives and economic actors in the territories, the Action Plan Heart of City aims to facilitate and support the work of local authorities, to encourage housing and urban planning actors to reinvest in city centres, to promote the maintenance or implementation of activities in the heart of the city in order to improve living conditions in medium-sized cities.