Saintes Population and Area (Charente-Maritime)
Largest city in France 2026: up-to-date figures for Saintes (Charente-Maritime)
Saintes: Population and Area
With 26,773 inhabitants (INSEE total population in force on January 1, 2026), Saintes is the 341st most populous town in France in 2026 and the 2nd most populous in the Charente-Maritime department, out of 462 communes. It covers 46 km² (1,507th largest area in France, 8th largest in the department), with a population density of 588 inhabitants per km², or 5.4 times the national average (110 inhabitants/km²), which ranks it 1,593rd in France for density.
Saintes is located in the Charente-Maritime department (17), in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region (formerly Poitou-Charentes), where it ranks 26th by population out of 4,293 communes. The most populous town in the Charente-Maritime department is La Rochelle (81,843 inhabitants); the department is home to 688,067 people over 6,864 km².
See the full ranking of communes in the Charente-Maritime department and the regional ranking: largest city in Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
Towns of similar size in the Charente-Maritime department: La Rochelle (pop. 81,843), Rochefort (pop. 24,081), Royan (pop. 19,985), Aytré (pop. 9,881).
Sources: INSEE, official population figures in force on January 1, 2026 (total population); areas: IGN / Observatoire des territoires; INSEE code 17415. Rankings are calculated across the 34,858 communes of metropolitan and overseas France in our database.