La Rochelle Population and Area (Charente-Maritime)
Largest city in France 2026: up-to-date figures for La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime)
La Rochelle: Population and Area
With 81,843 inhabitants (INSEE total population in force on January 1, 2026), La Rochelle is the 62nd most populous town in France in 2026 and the most populous in the Charente-Maritime department, out of 462 communes. It covers 28 km² (4,329th largest area in France, 35th largest in the department), with a population density of 2,879 inhabitants per km², or 26 times the national average (110 inhabitants/km²), which ranks it 310th in France for density.
La Rochelle is located in the Charente-Maritime department (17), in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region (formerly Poitou-Charentes), where it ranks 5th by population out of 4,293 communes. It is the most populous town in the Charente-Maritime department, which is home to 688,067 people over 6,864 km².
See the full ranking of communes in the Charente-Maritime department and the regional ranking: largest city in Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
Towns of similar size in the Charente-Maritime department: Saintes (pop. 26,773), Rochefort (pop. 24,081), Royan (pop. 19,985).
Sources: INSEE, official population figures in force on January 1, 2026 (total population); areas: IGN / Observatoire des territoires; INSEE code 17300. Rankings are calculated across the 34,858 communes of metropolitan and overseas France in our database.
La Rochelle, a major city on the Atlantic coast
The prefecture of Charente-Maritime and the most populous town in the department, La Rochelle grew up around its Old Port, guarded by the Saint-Nicolas and Chaîne towers. A major trading port as early as the Middle Ages and a Protestant stronghold, it withstood a long siege by the troops of Louis XIII and Richelieu in 1627 and 1628.
An attractive city short on space
Today, the size of La Rochelle rests on its commercial port at La Pallice, its fishing port, Les Minimes, one of the largest marinas on the Atlantic seaboard, a university founded in 1993 and a thriving tourism industry, the Francofolies festival included. The commune, modest in area and bordered by the ocean, has little room to expand: population growth, fueled by the appeal of the coast, spills over into the neighboring towns of the urban area and onto the Île de Ré, linked to the mainland by a bridge since 1988.