Pessac Population and Area (Gironde)
Largest city in France 2026: up-to-date figures for Pessac (Gironde)
Pessac: Population and Area
With 68,102 inhabitants (INSEE total population in force on January 1, 2026), Pessac is the 78th most populous town in France in 2026 and the 3rd most populous in the Gironde department, out of 534 communes. It covers 39 km² (2,223rd largest area in France, 53rd largest in the department), with a population density of 1,754 inhabitants per km², or 16 times the national average (110 inhabitants/km²), which ranks it 515th in France for density.
Pessac is located in the Gironde department (33), in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region (formerly Aquitaine), where it ranks 7th by population out of 4,293 communes. The most populous town in the Gironde department is Bordeaux (271,552 inhabitants); the department is home to 1,716,986 people over 9,976 km².
See the full ranking of communes in the Gironde department and the regional ranking: largest city in Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
Towns of similar size in the Gironde department: Bordeaux (pop. 271,552), Mérignac (pop. 78,946), Talence (pop. 47,340), Villenave-d'Ornon (pop. 42,858), Saint-Médard-en-Jalles (pop. 33,398).
Sources: INSEE, official population figures in force on January 1, 2026 (total population); areas: IGN / Observatoire des territoires; INSEE code 33318. Rankings are calculated across the 34,858 communes of metropolitan and overseas France in our database.
Pessac, the big university town of the Bordeaux area
The third most populous town in the Gironde department, after Bordeaux and Mérignac, Pessac stretches southwest of Bordeaux, from the urban neighborhoods of the inner suburbs to the pine woods that herald the Landes. This vast territory explains its moderate density for a town of this size.
Campus, vineyards and architecture
A large part of the University of Bordeaux campus lies in Pessac and its neighbors Talence and Gradignan, making the town one of the main student hubs of southwestern France. It is also a land of great wines, home to Château Pape Clément, a classified growth of the Pessac-Léognan appellation, and a landmark of modern architecture: the Cité Frugès, designed by Le Corbusier in the 1920s, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2016. Served by the tramway, Pessac has seen its population grow strongly since the 1960s, alongside the rise of the university and of the Bordeaux metropolitan area.