About 66 million people live in France
According to updated data, reports RFI, the population of France was 65,906,986 people. In metropolitan France (excluding the four overseas departments) there were just over 64 million people.
According to the Insee institute, the population grew by another 342,000 people over the year (an increase of 0.5%). All French regions gained in population, except for the western region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (where the population decreased by 750 people). The population of Corsica grew the most – by 1.3%. The number of residents increased by 0.8% in southern Occitanie, the southwestern region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, and the western region Pays de la Loire.
The most densely populated remains the capital region of Île-de-France, where the population is 12.2 million people.
In the new region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, with its administrative center in Lyon, 8 million residents were counted (the region was created on January 1, 2016 by merging the regions of Auvergne and Rhône-Alpes). In the northern region of Hauts-de-France, formed by merging the regions of Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy, more than 6 million people live.
Of the 96 departments of metropolitan France (101 total including overseas territories), 23 have a population exceeding 1 million people. More than two million residents live in only three departments – Nord (with its center in Lille), Paris, and Bouches-du-Rhône (center – Marseille). Nord remains the most populous department in the country with a population of 2.6 million people.