The urban units of France: the 65 cities of more than 100,000 people

INSEE, the French statistics office, draws an urban unit around every group of municipalities whose buildings are never more than 200 m apart, with at least 2,000 people. It is the real extent of a French city, suburbs included. 65 of them pass 100,000 people; Paris alone holds 11.0 million.

The 65 urban units of metropolitan France and overseas departments with more than 100,000 people (metropolitan France shown).

The list

Figures: INSEE urban units (2020 delineation, municipalities as of 1 January 2025) with the latest municipal populations. Area: the total area of the member municipalities.

#	Urban unit	People	Area (km²)	People per km²
1	Paris	11,013,774	2,837	3,882
2	Lyon	1,721,721	1,148	1,500
3	Marseille-Aix-en-Provence	1,648,953	1,758	938
4	Toulouse	1,093,783	963	1,136
5	Lille	1,063,720	447	2,380
6	Bordeaux	1,034,027	1,293	800
7	Nice	987,709	748	1,320
8	Nantes	689,036	509	1,354
9	Toulon	603,708	773	781
10	Douai-Lens	505,025	485	1,041
11	Strasbourg	494,536	241	2,052
12	Montpellier	485,823	327	1,486
13	Rouen	481,104	462	1,041
14	Avignon	470,028	1,361	345
15	Grenoble	457,409	360	1,271
16	Rennes	381,156	329	1,159
17	Saint-Étienne	376,371	415	907
18	Tours	370,118	688	538
19	Béthune	356,094	762	467
20	Valenciennes	332,401	440	755
21	Metz	294,271	308	955
22	Orléans	292,837	291	1,006
23	Nancy	285,561	247	1,156
24	Clermont-Ferrand	272,529	183	1,489
25	Bayonne	262,866	460	571
26	Pointe-à-Pitre-Les Abymes	253,438	733	346
27	Angers	253,408	246	1,030
28	Dijon	252,712	170	1,487
29	Mulhouse	246,660	239	1,032
30	Le Havre	232,175	202	1,149
31	Le Mans	218,576	324	675
32	Caen	216,647	174	1,245
33	Reims	214,496	107	2,005
34	Perpignan	209,325	218	960
35	Pau	208,785	532	392
36	Brest	207,010	199	1,040
37	Chambéry	202,600	348	582
38	Genève (SUI)-Annemasse	200,767	315	637
39	Saint-Nazaire	196,767	500	394
40	Saint-Denis	192,727	231	834
41	Nîmes	187,287	266	704
42	Limoges	186,707	272	686
43	Annecy	186,633	241	774
44	Saint-Paul	178,625	377	474
45	Saint-Pierre	174,793	331	528
46	Amiens	166,909	138	1,209
47	Dunkerque	161,475	150	1,076
48	La Rochelle	141,525	132	1,072
49	Besançon	140,404	135	1,040
50	Troyes	139,879	164	853
51	Thionville	138,230	137	1,009
52	Poitiers	134,336	194	692
53	Valence	132,749	179	742
54	Le Robert	129,486	411	315
55	Creil	128,454	168	765
56	Cayenne	126,910	218	582
57	Lorient	125,079	147	851
58	Fort-de-France	115,779	127	912
59	Montbéliard	111,453	167	667
60	Angoulême	110,529	203	544
61	Maubeuge	108,271	178	608
62	Fréjus	105,434	223	473
63	Alès	104,273	309	337
64	Mamoudzou	103,593	70	1,480
65	Vienne	101,144	239	423

Paris, and then a long way behind

The Paris urban unit is more than six times larger than the next one: 11.0 million people against 1.7 million for Lyon. Below Paris, five units pass one million, close to each other: Lyon, Marseille – Aix-en-Provence, Toulouse, Lille and Bordeaux. Nice is just below.

Urban units with several poles

Some urban units join cities that people see as separate. Douai-Lens is one built-up area of half a million people, but the mining towns around Lens and the old city of Douai have each their own centre. SlightlyMap can split such units into their poles, with one rule: a pole is the largest municipality, or a municipality with at least half its population and at least 10 km away; every municipality goes to the nearest pole; a pole whose share is less than a third of the largest is merged back. 21 French units are split this way:

Urban unit	Poles (people in each part)
Douai-Lens	Lens 188,528 · Hénin-Beaumont 160,756 · Douai 155,741
Pointe-à-Pitre-Les Abymes	Les Abymes 179,221 · Baie-Mahault 74,217
Chambéry	Chambéry 144,693 · Aix-les-Bains 57,907
Saint-Pierre	Le Tampon 89,755 · Saint-Pierre 85,038
Le Robert	Le Robert 46,941 · Rivière-Pilote 42,289 · Ducos 40,256
Cayenne	Cayenne 90,398 · Matoury 36,512
Sète	Frontignan 50,325 · Sète 45,337
Cluses	Bonneville 54,796 · Cluses 40,480
Armentières	Armentières 59,387 · Bailleul 22,011
Saint-Cyprien	Saint-Cyprien 33,411 · Argelès-sur-Mer 31,851
Sallanches	Sallanches 28,813 · Passy 17,720
Berck	Berck 23,161 · Étaples 20,063
Dives-sur-Mer	Trouville-sur-Mer 18,499 · Dives-sur-Mer 17,760
Penmarch	Penmarch 13,078 · Loctudy 10,222
Honfleur	Honfleur 14,691 · Beuzeville 6,381
Vizille	Vizille 10,955 · Saint-Martin-d'Uriage 9,593
Le Grau-du-Roi	Le Grau-du-Roi 8,588 · La Grande-Motte 8,440
Allevard	Crêts en Belledonne 7,441 · Valgelon-La Rochette 7,211
Mourenx	Mourenx 8,560 · Monein 4,951
La Broque	La Broque 6,962 · Lutzelhouse 5,920
La Bresse	La Bresse 6,880 · Saulxures-sur-Moselotte 3,371

Lille, though, stays whole: Roubaix, its second municipality, has less than half the population of Lille.

Municipality, urban unit, catchment area

France counts its cities at three levels. Marseille has 886,040 people within its municipal limits, 1,648,953 in its urban unit (with Aix-en-Provence) and 1,917,728 in its catchment area (aire d'attraction), which adds the towns where at least 15 % of workers commute to the centre. Paris: 2.1 million, 11.0 million and 13.3 million. See what is a city?

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