Créteil Population and Area (Val-de-Marne)
Largest city in France 2026: up-to-date figures for Créteil (Val-de-Marne)
Créteil: Population and Area
With 93,813 inhabitants (INSEE total population in force on January 1, 2026), Créteil is the 48th most populous town in France in 2026 and the 2nd most populous in the Val-de-Marne department, out of 47 communes. It covers 11 km² (16,616th largest area in France, 2nd largest in the department), with a population density of 8,186 inhabitants per km², or 75 times the national average (110 inhabitants/km²), which ranks it 62nd in France for density.
Créteil is located in the Val-de-Marne department (94), in the Île-de-France region, where it ranks 9th by population out of 1,266 communes. The most populous town in the Val-de-Marne department is Vitry-sur-Seine (94,393 inhabitants); the department is home to 1,435,612 people over 245 km².
See the full ranking of communes in the Val-de-Marne department and the regional ranking: largest city in Île-de-France.
Towns of similar size in the Val-de-Marne department: Vitry-sur-Seine (pop. 94,393), Champigny-sur-Marne (pop. 78,400), Saint-Maur-des-Fossés (pop. 77,413), Ivry-sur-Seine (pop. 65,263).
Sources: INSEE, official population figures in force on January 1, 2026 (total population); areas: IGN / Observatoire des territoires; INSEE code 94028. Rankings are calculated across the 34,858 communes of metropolitan and overseas France in our database.
Créteil, a prefecture built in twenty years
Créteil is the prefecture of the Val-de-Marne and the department's second-largest town after Vitry-sur-Seine. Its size is one of the most recent in our ranking: a small rural town on the banks of the Marne until the 1950s, it was chosen in 1965 as the capital of the new department and equipped within a few years with all the attributes of a large city: prefecture, town hall, courthouse, Henri-Mondor hospital and university.
A new town within the town
The "Nouveau Créteil" program and the Mont-Mesly district multiplied the population fivefold in a single generation, making Créteil an example of postwar boom-years (Trente Glorieuses) urban planning, with its "cabbage" (choux) buildings, which have become iconic. The town also draws appeal from its lake, the banks of the Marne and vast green spaces, which explain a lower density than that of its neighbors. The terminus of Metro line 8 and seat of a diocese and a university, Créteil keeps a young and stable population.