Lens Population and Area (Pas-de-Calais)
Largest city in France 2026: up-to-date figures for Lens (Pas-de-Calais)
Lens: Population and Area
With 33,122 inhabitants (INSEE total population in force on January 1, 2026), Lens is the 254th most populous town in France in 2026 and the 4th most populous in the Pas-de-Calais department, out of 887 communes. It covers 12 km² (16,253rd largest area in France, 128th largest in the department), with a population density of 2,831 inhabitants per km², or 26 times the national average (110 inhabitants/km²), which ranks it 316th in France for density.
Lens is located in the Pas-de-Calais department (62), in the Hauts-de-France region (formerly Nord-Pas-de-Calais), where it ranks 18th by population out of 3,782 communes. The most populous town in the Pas-de-Calais department is Calais (68,246 inhabitants); the department is home to 1,479,365 people over 6,671 km².
See the full ranking of communes in the Pas-de-Calais department and the regional ranking: largest city in Hauts-de-France.
Towns of similar size in the Pas-de-Calais department: Calais (pop. 68,246), Arras (pop. 43,765), Boulogne-sur-Mer (pop. 40,924), Liévin (pop. 30,398), Hénin-Beaumont (pop. 26,029), Béthune (pop. 25,585).
Sources: INSEE, official population figures in force on January 1, 2026 (total population); areas: IGN / Observatoire des territoires; INSEE code 62498. Rankings are calculated across the 34,858 communes of metropolitan and overseas France in our database.