What are the 10 French cities with the most pétanque players per inhabitant?

In order: Agde, Lavaur, Onet-le-Château, Saint-Gaudens, Villefranche-de-Rouergue, Yzeure, Limoux, Ploufragan, Argelès-sur-Mer and Frontignan.

What is the top 5 of French cities with the most pétanque players per inhabitant?

Agde (14.6 / 1,000 inhab.), Lavaur (13.8 / 1,000 inhab.), Onet-le-Château (13.6 / 1,000 inhab.), Saint-Gaudens (13.5 / 1,000 inhab.) and Villefranche-de-Rouergue (13.4 / 1,000 inhab.).

Which city is 2nd in the ranking of French cities with the most pétanque players per inhabitant?

Lavaur, at 13.8 / 1,000 inhab., just behind Agde (14.6 / 1,000 inhab.).

Is Agde really the French city with the most pétanque players per inhabitant?

Yes, at 14.6 / 1,000 inhab., ahead of Lavaur (13.8 / 1,000 inhab.) and Onet-le-Château (13.6 / 1,000 inhab.).

In which département is Agde?

Agde is in département 34, in the Occitanie region.

What is the difference between Agde and Lavaur?

Agde is at 14.6 / 1,000 inhab., Lavaur at 13.8 / 1,000 inhab. The table gives the same figure for all 50 places, so any two of them can be compared the same way.

Which city is 10th in the ranking of French cities with the most pétanque players per inhabitant?

Frontignan, at 12.5 / 1,000 inhab.

How many French cities does this ranking compare?

1,035, with the top 50 listed in full in the table below.

Is there a complete ranking of French cities with the most pétanque players per inhabitant?

Yes, the table below: the top 50 of 1,035, each with its département and its region, and the exact method and scope stated underneath it.

Where is pétanque most played in France?

Agde (14.6 / 1,000 inhab.), Lavaur (13.8 / 1,000 inhab.), Onet-le-Château (13.6 / 1,000 inhab.), Saint-Gaudens (13.5 / 1,000 inhab.) and Villefranche-de-Rouergue (13.4 / 1,000 inhab.). The south leads, as the cliché has it, but the licence rate is highest in medium-sized towns rather than on the Marseille waterfront.

In order: Agde (14.6 / 1,000 inhab.), Lavaur (13.8 / 1,000 inhab.), Onet-le-Château (13.6 / 1,000 inhab.), Saint-Gaudens (13.5 / 1,000 inhab.), Villefranche-de-Rouergue (13.4 / 1,000 inhab.), Yzeure (13.3 / 1,000 inhab.), Limoux (13.2 / 1,000 inhab.), Ploufragan (13.1 / 1,000 inhab.), Argelès-sur-Mer (13.1 / 1,000 inhab.), Frontignan (12.5 / 1,000 inhab.).

Isn't Marseille the home of pétanque?

It is, historically: the game was invented in 1907 in La Ciotat, just along the coast, for a player whose legs no longer let him run up to throw. But a licence is a club membership, and this ranking counts them per inhabitant, so the leaders are the mid-size towns of Occitanie and the Aveyron rather than the big Mediterranean cities. Marseille has a great many players and a great many more residents.

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Sport · Ministère des Sports, recensement des licences sportives

The French cities with the most pétanque players

Name: The French cities with the most pétanque players
Creator: Le Bon Rang
License: https://www.etalab.gouv.fr/licence-ouverte-open-licence/

Per inhabitant, the town with the most licensed pétanque players in France is Agde, with 14.6 / 1,000 inhabitants, ahead of Lavaur (13.8 / 1,000 inhabitants) and Onet-le-Château (13.6 / 1,000 inhabitants).

Could you put Bagnols-sur-Cèze, Frontignan and Saint-Laurent-du-Var in this ranking's order? Le Bon Rang is that game, every day. Play today's game

Players / 1,000, 986 cities shown. The coloured surface estimates the local tendency from nearby ranked cities. Exact city values remain in the table. 49 ranked overseas cities are not plotted: they fall outside this map's frame. Projection: longitude compressed by cos(46.3°N), so east-west and north-south distances stay comparable. Source: Ministère des Sports, recensement des licences sportives · 2023.

Find your town

Top 50 of 1,035 cities
Rank	City	Players / 1,000 inhab.	Population	Region
1	34 Agde	14.6	29,939	Occitanie
2	81 Lavaur	13.8	10,965	Occitanie
3	12 Onet-le-Château	13.6	12,080	Occitanie
4	31 Saint-Gaudens	13.5	12,139	Occitanie
5	12 Villefranche-de-Rouergue	13.4	11,271	Occitanie
6	03 Yzeure	13.3	12,897	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
7	11 Limoux	13.2	10,532	Occitanie
8	22 Ploufragan	13.1	11,507	Bretagne
9	66 Argelès-sur-Mer	13.1	10,616	Occitanie
10	34 Frontignan	12.5	24,136	Occitanie
11	66 Saint-Cyprien	12.3	12,068	Occitanie
12	31 Auterive	12.2	10,456	Occitanie
13	84 Le Pontet	12.1	18,386	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
14	07 Guilherand-Granges	11.7	11,235	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
15	48 Mende	11.5	12,464	Occitanie
16	13 Pélissanne	11.5	11,085	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
17	34 Mauguio	11.3	16,522	Occitanie
18	13 Fos-sur-Mer	11.3	15,862	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
19	66 Canet-en-Roussillon	11	13,227	Occitanie
20	12 Millau	10.9	22,044	Occitanie
21	26 Portes-lès-Valence	10.9	10,477	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
22	81 Graulhet	10.8	13,129	Occitanie
23	06 Mandelieu-la-Napoule	10.6	21,640	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
24	30 Bagnols-sur-Cèze	10.6	18,112	Occitanie
25	03 Cusset	10.6	13,316	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
26	34 Mèze	10.5	12,669	Occitanie
27	66 Pia	10.4	11,615	Occitanie
28	79 Bressuire	10.3	19,970	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
29	43 Le Puy-en-Velay	10.3	18,540	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
30	31 Villeneuve-Tolosane	10.2	11,044	Occitanie
31	31 Seysses	10.2	10,539	Occitanie
32	84 Pernes-les-Fontaines	10.2	10,504	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
33	12 Rodez	10	23,981	Occitanie
34	972 La Trinité (972)	9.9	11,454	Martinique
35	53 Château-Gontier-sur-Mayenne	9.8	16,584	Pays de la Loire
36	13 Port-de-Bouc	9.8	15,802	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
37	83 Sainte-Maxime	9.8	14,118	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
38	06 La Trinité (06)	9.8	10,602	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
39	06 Saint-Laurent-du-Var	9.7	32,172	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
40	84 Sorgues	9.7	19,006	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
41	09 Pamiers	9.7	16,473	Occitanie
42	82 Castelsarrasin	9.6	14,343	Occitanie
43	13 Saint-Martin-de-Crau	9.6	14,145	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
44	31 Castelginest	9.4	11,271	Occitanie
45	2A Porto-Vecchio	9.4	11,198	Corse
46	31 Plaisance-du-Touch	9.3	21,079	Occitanie
47	81 Gaillac	9.3	16,162	Occitanie
48	66 Saint-Estève	9.2	11,630	Occitanie
49	46 Cahors	9.1	20,050	Occitanie
50	81 Mazamet	9.1	10,085	Occitanie

The table stops at 50. Search any of the 1,035 ranked towns ↑

The other end : The French cities where pétanque is least played

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Scope, method and sources

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. This particular ranking is a rate per inhabitant, so it covers towns of 10,000 people or more only: in a village of a hundred, three licence holders would read as thirty per thousand and outrank a town with a professional club, so no rate is published below that size rather than a meaningless one.

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.

13 questions about this ranking

What are the 10 French cities with the most pétanque players per inhabitant?: In order: Agde, Lavaur, Onet-le-Château, Saint-Gaudens, Villefranche-de-Rouergue, Yzeure, Limoux, Ploufragan, Argelès-sur-Mer and Frontignan.
What is the top 5 of French cities with the most pétanque players per inhabitant?: Agde (14.6 / 1,000 inhab.), Lavaur (13.8 / 1,000 inhab.), Onet-le-Château (13.6 / 1,000 inhab.), Saint-Gaudens (13.5 / 1,000 inhab.) and Villefranche-de-Rouergue (13.4 / 1,000 inhab.).
Which city is 2nd in the ranking of French cities with the most pétanque players per inhabitant?: Lavaur, at 13.8 / 1,000 inhab., just behind Agde (14.6 / 1,000 inhab.).
Is Agde really the French city with the most pétanque players per inhabitant?: Yes, at 14.6 / 1,000 inhab., ahead of Lavaur (13.8 / 1,000 inhab.) and Onet-le-Château (13.6 / 1,000 inhab.).
In which département is Agde?: Agde is in département 34, in the Occitanie region.
What is the difference between Agde and Lavaur?: Agde is at 14.6 / 1,000 inhab., Lavaur at 13.8 / 1,000 inhab. The table gives the same figure for all 50 places, so any two of them can be compared the same way.
Which city is 10th in the ranking of French cities with the most pétanque players per inhabitant?: Frontignan, at 12.5 / 1,000 inhab.
How many French cities does this ranking compare?: 1,035, with the top 50 listed in full in the table below.
What are the French cities with the most pétanque players per inhabitant in 2026?: This ranking uses the most recent official figures published as of 2026: Agde leads with 14.6 / 1,000 inhab.
Is there a complete ranking of French cities with the most pétanque players per inhabitant?: Yes, the table below: the top 50 of 1,035, each with its département and its region, and the exact method and scope stated underneath it.
Where is pétanque most played in France?: Agde (14.6 / 1,000 inhab.), Lavaur (13.8 / 1,000 inhab.), Onet-le-Château (13.6 / 1,000 inhab.), Saint-Gaudens (13.5 / 1,000 inhab.) and Villefranche-de-Rouergue (13.4 / 1,000 inhab.). The south leads, as the cliché has it, but the licence rate is highest in medium-sized towns rather than on the Marseille waterfront.
What are the top 10?: In order: Agde (14.6 / 1,000 inhab.), Lavaur (13.8 / 1,000 inhab.), Onet-le-Château (13.6 / 1,000 inhab.), Saint-Gaudens (13.5 / 1,000 inhab.), Villefranche-de-Rouergue (13.4 / 1,000 inhab.), Yzeure (13.3 / 1,000 inhab.), Limoux (13.2 / 1,000 inhab.), Ploufragan (13.1 / 1,000 inhab.), Argelès-sur-Mer (13.1 / 1,000 inhab.), Frontignan (12.5 / 1,000 inhab.).
Isn't Marseille the home of pétanque?: It is, historically: the game was invented in 1907 in La Ciotat, just along the coast, for a player whose legs no longer let him run up to throw. But a licence is a club membership, and this ranking counts them per inhabitant, so the leaders are the mid-size towns of Occitanie and the Aveyron rather than the big Mediterranean cities. Marseille has a great many players and a great many more residents.

The table below ranks the top 50 of the 1,035 cities in the dataset, each with its département, its region and the figure it is ranked on (pétanque players per 1,000 inhabitants), 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 French cities with the most golfers and The French cities with the most hikers, 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.