Everyday life · Ministère de la Culture / DEPS, base des lieux et équipements culturels (Basilic)
Drancy comes last on bookshops, with 1 bookshop, ahead of Cergy (1 bookshop) and Calais (1 bookshop).
| Rank | City | Bookshops | Population | Region |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 93 Drancy | 1 | 72,390 | Île-de-France |
| 2 | 95 Cergy | 1 | 70,906 | Île-de-France |
| 3 | 62 Calais | 1 | 67,571 | Hauts-de-France |
| 4 | 95 Sarcelles | 1 | 59,173 | Île-de-France |
| 5 | 92 Clamart | 1 | 58,576 | Île-de-France |
| 6 | 93 Bobigny | 1 | 56,927 | Île-de-France |
| 7 | 69 Vaulx-en-Velin | 1 | 53,069 | Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes |
| 8 | 93 Épinay-sur-Seine | 1 | 52,833 | Île-de-France |
| 9 | 93 Livry-Gargan | 1 | 47,228 | Île-de-France |
| 10 | 94 Alfortville | 1 | 45,531 | Île-de-France |
| 11 | 69 Caluire-et-Cuire | 1 | 43,597 | Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes |
| 12 | 33 Villenave-d'Ornon | 1 | 42,545 | Nouvelle-Aquitaine |
| 13 | 06 Le Cannet | 1 | 41,938 | Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur |
| 14 | 93 Villepinte | 1 | 41,470 | Île-de-France |
| 15 | 93 Stains | 1 | 41,388 | Île-de-France |
| 16 | 31 Colomiers | 1 | 40,882 | Occitanie |
| 17 | 77 Pontault-Combault | 1 | 39,096 | Île-de-France |
| 18 | 93 Tremblay-en-France | 1 | 38,348 | Île-de-France |
| 19 | 38 Saint-Martin-d'Hères | 1 | 37,695 | Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes |
| 20 | 91 Savigny-sur-Orge | 1 | 37,601 | Île-de-France |
| 21 | 93 Romainville | 1 | 37,152 | Île-de-France |
| 22 | 13 Vitrolles | 1 | 36,758 | Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur |
| 23 | 69 Meyzieu | 1 | 36,687 | Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes |
| 24 | 95 Bezons | 1 | 36,434 | Île-de-France |
| 25 | 974 Saint-Leu | 1 | 36,163 | La Réunion |
| 26 | 92 Châtenay-Malabry | 1 | 35,825 | Île-de-France |
| 27 | 78 Trappes | 1 | 34,689 | Île-de-France |
| 28 | 78 Les Mureaux | 1 | 34,632 | Île-de-France |
| 29 | 33 Saint-Médard-en-Jalles | 1 | 32,910 | Nouvelle-Aquitaine |
| 30 | 94 Nogent-sur-Marne | 1 | 32,455 | Île-de-France |
| 31 | 33 Bègles | 1 | 31,831 | Nouvelle-Aquitaine |
| 32 | 95 Herblay-sur-Seine | 1 | 31,779 | Île-de-France |
| 33 | 28 Dreux | 1 | 31,543 | Centre-Val de Loire |
| 34 | 91 Vigneux-sur-Seine | 1 | 31,466 | Île-de-France |
| 35 | 95 Goussainville | 1 | 31,301 | Île-de-France |
| 36 | 77 Savigny-le-Temple | 1 | 31,148 | Île-de-France |
| 37 | 91 Viry-Châtillon | 1 | 30,838 | Île-de-France |
| 38 | 91 Draveil | 1 | 30,098 | Île-de-France |
| 39 | 62 Liévin | 1 | 30,063 | Hauts-de-France |
| 40 | 69 Décines-Charpieu | 1 | 29,877 | Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes |
| 41 | 78 Guyancourt | 1 | 29,778 | Île-de-France |
| 42 | 76 Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray | 1 | 29,518 | Normandie |
| 43 | 76 Sotteville-lès-Rouen | 1 | 29,003 | Normandie |
| 44 | 92 Le Plessis-Robinson | 1 | 28,848 | Île-de-France |
| 45 | 94 Charenton-le-Pont | 1 | 28,830 | Île-de-France |
| 46 | 67 Illkirch-Graffenstaden | 1 | 27,872 | Grand Est |
| 47 | 94 Sucy-en-Brie | 1 | 27,764 | Île-de-France |
| 48 | 95 Gonesse | 1 | 27,707 | Île-de-France |
| 49 | 94 Limeil-Brévannes | 1 | 27,406 | Île-de-France |
| 50 | 59 Lambersart | 1 | 27,090 | Hauts-de-France |
The other end : Bookshops: the top 50 French cities
Scope: France, metropolitan and overseas, Corsica and the DROM included. This dataset holds every commune of 10,000 inhabitants or more, plus smaller communes famous enough to be household names, 1,131 in all. It is not the full list of 35,000 French communes, so a village can sit outside a ranking whose extreme it would otherwise hold.
Method and sources: populations are the INSEE legal populations, boundaries and coordinates come from the IGN commune registry, both served by geo.api.gouv.fr. Density is the population divided by the commune's area; distances are measured as the crow flies from the commune's centre. Data read on August 28, 2026.
The table below ranks the top 50 of the 730 cities in the dataset, each with its département, its region and the figure it is ranked on (bookshops), so you can see not just the order but how far apart the places are. The numbers are official public data: INSEE legal populations and the IGN commune registry, with the exact method and the exact scope stated under the table rather than left to be guessed at.
The same data answers neighbouring questions too: see The most expensive cities to rent in France and The cheapest cities to rent in France, or all rankings for the full list. All of it comes from Le Bon Rang, a free daily game that gives you five French cities and one of these statistics and asks you for the order.