Roanne Population and Area (Loire)
Largest city in France 2026: up-to-date figures for Roanne (Loire)
Roanne: Population and Area
With 36,067 inhabitants (INSEE total population in force on January 1, 2026), Roanne is the 235th most populous town in France in 2026 and the 2nd most populous in the Loire department, out of 320 communes. It covers 16 km² (11,056th largest area in France, 112th largest in the department), with a population density of 2,237 inhabitants per km², or 20 times the national average (110 inhabitants/km²), which ranks it 406th in France for density.
Roanne is located in the Loire department (42), in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region (formerly Rhône-Alpes), where it ranks 23rd by population out of 4,025 communes. The most populous town in the Loire department is Saint-Étienne (174,698 inhabitants); the department is home to 788,024 people over 4,781 km².
See the full ranking of communes in the Loire department and the regional ranking: largest city in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
Towns of similar size in the Loire department: Saint-Étienne (pop. 174,698), Saint-Chamond (pop. 36,065), Firminy (pop. 17,241), Montbrison (pop. 16,656).
Sources: INSEE, official population figures in force on January 1, 2026 (total population); areas: IGN / Observatoire des territoires; INSEE code 42187. Rankings are calculated across the 34,858 communes of metropolitan and overseas France in our database.