MAP. Discover the demographic evolution of cities with more than 30,000 inhabitants since 2010

Between 2010 and 2021, Île-de-France is the region with the most cities experiencing population growth. It is the municipalities of Fort-de-France in Martinique and Le Port in Réunion which recorded some of the largest declines.

INSEE published the latest figures from the annual census on Thursday, December 28. Among the 68 million inhabitants in France, we see in this report that the population increased less quickly between 2015 and 2021 (+0.3) than between 2010 and 2015 (+0.5). On the map below, you can visualize the demographic evolution of municipalities with more than 30,000 inhabitants, between 2010 and 2021.

It is in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region that we find the strongest increases for towns with more than 30,000 inhabitants. Starting with Villenave-d’Ornon, in the southern suburbs of Bordeaux (Gironde), whose population increased by 3.27% between 2010 and 2021. Several other municipalities in the region show demographic growth of more than 1%. : Bègles (+1.95%), Saint-Médard-en-Jalles (+1.47), Pessac (+1.28%) and Mérignac (+1.24%), all four in the department of Gironde.

Other cities on the west coast experience marked growth between 2010 and 2021, such as Les Sables d’Olonne (+1.39), in Vendée, or Nantes (+1.15) and Saint-Herblain (+1.26 ), in Loire-Atlantique. At the regional level, Île-de-France has the most cities experiencing population growth. Among them, Corbeil-Essonne (+1.84%) and Vigneux-sur-Seine (+1.17%), in Essonne; Herblay-sur-Seine (+1.78%) and Bezons (+1.23%), in Val-d’Oise, or even Pierrefitte-sur-Seine (+1.37%) and Bobigny (+1, 35%), in Seine-Saint-Denis.

Elsewhere in France, we can see an increase of 1.27% in Aix-Les-Bains, in Savoie, of 1.19% in Cayenne, in Guyana, or even of 1.09% in Ajaccio, in Corsica. Lyon (Rhône) progresses (+0.69) between 2010 and 2021, but not as much as the municipalities surrounding it, in particular Vaulx-en-Velin (+2.11), Meyzieu (+1.56), Saint- Priest (+1.39).

Paris down, Marseille and Nice making little progress

Among the 12 largest municipalities in France, Paris is the only one to lose inhabitants. Paris thus lost 0.46% of its population between 2010 and 2021, bringing it to 2,133,111 inhabitants. The following 11 cities saw their population increase, with Montpellier (+1.48%), Nantes (1.15%) and Toulouse (1.21) among the strongest increases. Marseille (+0.24%) and Nice (+0.24%) have increased but little in 11 years.

Among the 282 municipalities with more than 30,000 inhabitants, three municipalities in the overseas departments and regions (DROM) and overseas communities (COM) recorded a drop of more than 1% in their population between 2010 and 2021 Among them, Fort-de-France, the capital of Martinique (−1.37%), Le Port, in Reunion (−1.28%), and Les Abymes (−1.05%), the most populated commune of Guadeloupe.

The only two other cities in France which saw their population drop by more than 1% between 2010 and 2021 are Montluçon (−1.28%), the largest municipality in the Allier department, and Nevers (−1.02 %), in Nièvre.

Three municipalities in Hauts-de-France recorded a drop of more than 0.5% in their population. These are Lens (−0.65%), in Pas-de-Calais, and two municipalities in the Nord department: Douai (−0.56%) and Dunkirk (−0.53%).

The Normandy region also has three cities with a significant decrease compared to other cities with more than 30,000 inhabitants recorded by INSEE: Cherbourg-en-Cotentin which recorded a 0.52% decrease between 2010 and 2021 and Le Havre, with a drop of 0.5%.