France: cities by population
France has a population of 66,746,401 (UN estimate, 2026), with Paris as its capital. The 50 largest of its 15,180 recorded towns and cities, ranked.
+12%
since 2000 (59,483,717)
+2%
projected by 2050 (68,219,675)
121
people per km²
Figures are the latest available in GeoNames (CC BY 4.0), which draws on national censuses of varying dates — treat them as recent, not same-year. Country totals are UN World Population Prospects 2024 (medium variant) where the UN lists the country separately; the handful it reports under a parent state keep a GeoNames figure and are marked as such. Sources & method.
Largest cities in France
| # | Place | Region | Population |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paris | Île-de-France | 2,138,551 |
| 2 | Marseille | Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur | 877,215 |
| 3 | Lyon | Rhône-Alpes | 520,774 |
| 4 | Toulouse | Occitanie | 511,684 |
| 5 | Nice | Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur | 342,669 |
| 6 | Nantes | Pays de la Loire | 325,070 |
| 7 | Marne La Vallée | Île-de-France | 318,325 |
| 8 | Strasbourg | Grand Est | 274,845 |
| 9 | Bordeaux | New Aquitaine | 265,328 |
| 10 | Montpellier | Occitanie | 248,252 |
| 11 | Lille | Hauts-de-France | 238,695 |
| 12 | Rennes | Brittany | 227,830 |
| 13 | Reims | Grand Est | 196,565 |
| 14 | Le Havre | Normandy | 185,972 |
| 15 | Cergy-Pontoise | Île-de-France | 183,430 |
| 16 | Saint-Étienne | Rhône-Alpes | 176,280 |
| 17 | Toulon | Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur | 168,701 |
| 18 | Angers | Pays de la Loire | 168,279 |
| 19 | Dijon | Bourgogne | 159,941 |
| 20 | Grenoble | Rhône-Alpes | 158,552 |
| 21 | Nîmes | Occitanie | 148,236 |
| 22 | Clermont-Ferrand | Rhône-Alpes | 147,865 |
| 23 | Aix-en-Provence | Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur | 146,821 |
| 24 | Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines | Île-de-France | 146,598 |
| 25 | Brest | Brittany | 144,899 |
| 26 | Le Mans | Pays de la Loire | 144,515 |
| 27 | Amiens | Hauts-de-France | 143,086 |
| 28 | Tours | Centre-Val de Loire | 141,621 |
| 29 | Limoges | New Aquitaine | 141,176 |
| 30 | Villeurbanne | Rhône-Alpes | 131,445 |
| 31 | Besançon | Bourgogne | 128,426 |
| 32 | Metz | Grand Est | 123,914 |
| 33 | Orléans | Centre-Val de Loire | 116,344 |
| 34 | Rouen | Normandy | 116,331 |
| 35 | Mulhouse | Grand Est | 111,430 |
| 36 | Montreuil | Île-de-France | 111,240 |
| 37 | Perpignan | Occitanie | 110,706 |
| 38 | Caen | Normandy | 110,624 |
| 39 | Boulogne-Billancourt | Île-de-France | 108,782 |
| 40 | Nancy | Grand Est | 105,058 |
Twenty years earlier: France in the 2005 World Gazetteer — population then 60,619,718.
Common questions
What is the population of France?
France has a population of 66,746,401, the UN World Population Prospects estimate for 2026. The UN's medium-variant projection for 2050 is 68,219,675 — a forecast, not a measurement.
What is the capital of France?
Paris.