Pau Population and Area (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)
Largest city in France 2026: up-to-date figures for Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)
Pau: Population and Area
With 81,891 inhabitants (INSEE total population in force on January 1, 2026), Pau is the 61st most populous town in France in 2026 and the most populous in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, out of 545 communes. It covers 32 km² (3,560th largest area in France, 46th largest in the department), with a population density of 2,599 inhabitants per km², or 24 times the national average (110 inhabitants/km²), which ranks it 346th in France for density.
Pau is located in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department (64), in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region (formerly Aquitaine), where it ranks 4th by population out of 4,293 communes. It is the most populous town in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, which is home to 725,655 people over 7,645 km².
See the full ranking of communes in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department and the regional ranking: largest city in Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
Towns of similar size in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department: Bayonne (pop. 55,590), Anglet (pop. 44,406), Biarritz (pop. 26,879).
Sources: INSEE, official population figures in force on January 1, 2026 (total population); areas: IGN / Observatoire des territoires; INSEE code 64445. Rankings are calculated across the 34,858 communes of metropolitan and overseas France in our database.
Pau, a major city at the foot of the Pyrenees
Capital of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department and its most populous town, Pau faces the Pyrenees mountain range, which unfolds before you from the Boulevard des Pyrénées, its signature promenade. The birthplace of King Henri IV, born in 1553 at the Château de Pau, it was once the capital of Béarn.
Growth driven first by winter tourism, then by energy
In the 19th century, Pau became a fashionable winter health resort, hugely popular with the British, who brought golf, fox hunting and horse racing with them. In the 20th century, the discovery of the Lacq gas field, some thirty kilometers away, transformed the city: the oil and gas industry set up its technical and scientific centers there, and the population rose sharply. A university town and home to many public and private services, Pau remains the heart of an urban area whose neighboring towns now account for most of the growth.