Saint-Denis Population and Area (Réunion)
Largest city in France 2026: up-to-date figures for Saint-Denis (Réunion)
Saint-Denis: Population and Area
With 157,142 inhabitants (INSEE total population in force on January 1, 2026), Saint-Denis is the 20th most populous town in France in 2026 and the most populous in the Réunion department, out of 24 communes. It covers 143 km² (105th largest area in France, 7th largest in the department), with a population density of 1,101 inhabitants per km², or 10 times the national average (110 inhabitants/km²), which ranks it 863rd in France for density.
Saint-Denis is located in the Réunion department (974), in the Réunion region, where it ranks 1st by population out of 24 communes. It is the most populous town in the Réunion department, which is home to 899,660 people over 2,504 km².
See the full ranking of communes in the Réunion department and the regional ranking: largest city in Réunion.
Towns of similar size in the Réunion department: Saint-Paul (pop. 109,405), Saint-Pierre (pop. 85,927), Le Tampon (pop. 83,518).
Sources: INSEE, official population figures in force on January 1, 2026 (total population); areas: IGN / Observatoire des territoires; INSEE code 97411. Rankings are calculated across the 34,858 communes of metropolitan and overseas France in our database.
Saint-Denis, the largest city in overseas France
Capital of Réunion, Saint-Denis is the largest city in all of overseas France and the only overseas town to appear in the top twenty of our ranking. It was founded in 1669 by Étienne Regnault, the first governor of Île Bourbon, on the island's northern coast, where the prefecture, government offices and corporate headquarters are concentrated today.
Late but rapid growth
For a long time a modest little town living to the rhythm of coffee and then sugarcane, Saint-Denis was transformed after Réunion became a department in 1946: rural exodus, a high birth rate and the growth of services swelled the city within a few decades. Its territory, which rises from the coast toward the slopes of the Roche Écrite, is very unevenly populated: a dense coastal strip and nearly empty uplands, which gives the town a misleading average density for a city of this size.