Douai Population and Area (Nord)
Largest city in France 2026: up-to-date figures for Douai (Nord)
Douai: Population and Area
With 41,108 inhabitants (INSEE total population in force on January 1, 2026), Douai is the 195th most populous town in France in 2026 and the 7th most populous in the Nord department, out of 647 communes. It covers 17 km² (10,332nd largest area in France, 63rd largest in the department), with a population density of 2,435 inhabitants per km², or 22 times the national average (110 inhabitants/km²), which ranks it 373rd in France for density.
Douai is located in the Nord department (59), in the Hauts-de-France region (formerly Nord-Pas-de-Calais), where it ranks 13th by population out of 3,782 communes. The most populous town in the Nord department is Lille (240,109 inhabitants); the department is home to 2,645,946 people over 5,743 km².
See the full ranking of communes in the Nord department and the regional ranking: largest city in Hauts-de-France.
Towns of similar size in the Nord department: Dunkerque (pop. 87,442), Villeneuve-d'Ascq (pop. 63,462), Valenciennes (pop. 43,966), Wattrelos (pop. 41,013), Marcq-en-Barœul (pop. 40,930), Cambrai (pop. 31,738).
Sources: INSEE, official population figures in force on January 1, 2026 (total population); areas: IGN / Observatoire des territoires; INSEE code 59178. Rankings are calculated across the 34,858 communes of metropolitan and overseas France in our database.