Avignon Population and Area (Vaucluse)
Largest city in France 2026: up-to-date figures for Avignon (Vaucluse)
Avignon: Population and Area
With 93,567 inhabitants (INSEE total population in force on January 1, 2026), Avignon is the 49th most populous town in France in 2026 and the most populous in the Vaucluse department, out of 151 communes. It covers 65 km² (649th largest area in France, 6th largest in the department), with a population density of 1,441 inhabitants per km², or 13 times the national average (110 inhabitants/km²), which ranks it 648th in France for density.
Avignon is located in the Vaucluse department (84), in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, where it ranks 5th by population out of 946 communes. It is the most populous town in the Vaucluse department, which is home to 582,656 people over 3,567 km².
See the full ranking of communes in the Vaucluse department and the regional ranking: largest city in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur.
Towns of similar size in the Vaucluse department: Carpentras (pop. 32,388), Orange (pop. 30,314), Cavaillon (pop. 25,991).
Sources: INSEE, official population figures in force on January 1, 2026 (total population); areas: IGN / Observatoire des territoires; INSEE code 84007. Rankings are calculated across the 34,858 communes of metropolitan and overseas France in our database.
Avignon, the City of Popes among the largest cities in France
Prefecture of the Vaucluse, Avignon is the largest city in its department and one of the major cities of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, at the confluence of the Rhône and the Durance. The residence of the popes from 1309 to 1377, then a papal possession until 1790, it was in the 14th century one of the largest cities in the Western world, as the Palace of the Popes and its intact ramparts, listed by UNESCO, still bear witness.
A central city in an urban area straddling two regions
The size of the commune of Avignon does not tell the whole story: its urban area spills over into the Gard, with Villeneuve-lès-Avignon and Les Angles, and into the Bouches-du-Rhône, and ranks among those that have grown the most in France since the late 1990s. The central city itself, with its dense walled center (intra-muros) and its southern districts stretching out to the TGV station and the Agroparc hub, has an average density. The Avignon Festival, the university and a TGV station two hours and forty minutes from Paris make it a magnet well beyond the Vaucluse.