Paris population continues to shrink as cost of living rises

Paris may be losing its allure judging by new figures that show the population of the world's most visited city has been dwindling by about 12,000 people a year since 2015. 

Rental prices are one of several reasons driving the exodus from Paris to the outer suburbs of Île-de-France. AFP - MIGUEL MEDINA

The Île-de-France region surrounding the French capital has, meanwhile, grown increasingly attractive as it steadily gains residents.

The news comes on the back of a report released last week by Insee, France’s national statistics agency, which showed that 73,377 Parisians left the city between 2015 and 2021.

That represents an average 0.6 percent loss of inhabitants over those six years.

Post-pandemic trend

The decline remained steady during Covid, with 12,795 Parisians moving away over the first year of the pandemic. 

Central arrondissements were most affected by the departures, with losses of 0.6 percent in the first arrondissement and 1.1 percent in the third.

However, the second and fourth arrondissements recorded increases of 0.3 percent and 0.7 percent respectively. 

According to the report, Paris had 2,133,111 inhabitants as of 1 January, 2021.

#Insee #IleDeFrance #PopulationLegale : au 1er janvier 2021, la région Ile-de-France compte 12 317 279 habitants. La #Population francilienne augmente de 0,3% par rapport à 2015. #recensementhttps://t.co/bwvaIIfT1g pic.twitter.com/RvGkE7RzWJ

— Insee Île-de-France (@InseeIdf) December 28, 2023

Île-de-France rising

Unlike Paris, the Île-de-France region saw an average annual population rise of 0.3 percent between 2015 and 2021.

Accounting for 18 percent of the national population, Île-de-France remains the country's most densely populated region.

"There was an increase of 0.8 percent in Seine Saint Denis and 0.5 percent in Val de Marne," Insee head of statistics Jean-Michel Arnoux told RFI.

Expensive rents

Paris's population drain reflects ongoing issues in the city such as a lack of nature, transport problems, expensive rent and the rising cost of living. 

Young people told Le Parisien, a daily newspaper, they were becoming increasingly disenchanted with the capital.

"I'm going to move to Bordeaux. I don't really like Paris any more ... It's not a very nice city," a mathematics student said.

Another student who moved to Paris five years ago added: "It's dirty and it's not much fun ... I can't wait to get back to the provinces. Paris has let me down so much."

Paris "as an ideal" was a myth that's completely outdated, he added.