Clermont-Ferrand Population and Area (Puy-de-Dôme)
Largest city in France 2026: up-to-date figures for Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme)
Clermont-Ferrand: Population and Area
With 148,795 inhabitants (INSEE total population in force on January 1, 2026), Clermont-Ferrand is the 25th most populous town in France in 2026 and the most populous in the Puy-de-Dôme department, out of 463 communes. It covers 43 km² (1,757th largest area in France, 27th largest in the department), with a population density of 3,487 inhabitants per km², or 32 times the national average (110 inhabitants/km²), which ranks it 237th in France for density.
Clermont-Ferrand is located in the Puy-de-Dôme department (63), in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region (formerly Auvergne), where it ranks 5th by population out of 4,025 communes. It is the most populous town in the Puy-de-Dôme department, which is home to 678,624 people over 7,970 km².
See the full ranking of communes in the Puy-de-Dôme department and the regional ranking: largest city in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
Towns of similar size in the Puy-de-Dôme department: Cournon-d'Auvergne (pop. 20,341), Riom (pop. 19,541), Chamalières (pop. 18,059).
Sources: INSEE, official population figures in force on January 1, 2026 (total population); areas: IGN / Observatoire des territoires; INSEE code 63113. Rankings are calculated across the 34,858 communes of metropolitan and overseas France in our database.
Clermont-Ferrand, the major city of Auvergne
No other town in Auvergne comes close to the size of Clermont-Ferrand, capital of the Puy-de-Dôme department and historic capital of Auvergne. Born in 1630 from the forced union of two rival towns, Clermont and Montferrand, it spreads out at the foot of the Chaîne des Puys, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
A city shaped by Michelin
The growth of Clermont-Ferrand in the 20th century is inseparable from Michelin, whose global headquarters and factories drew tens of thousands of workers and shaped entire neighborhoods of company housing. The decline in industrial jobs has been offset by the university and research (a quarter of the population is made up of students), by regional administrations and by the pharmaceutical and aerospace industries. The city remains the heart of a metropolis far more populous than itself, Clermont Auvergne Métropole, and keeps a high density for a mountain city.