Toulon Population and Area (Var)
Largest city in France 2026: up-to-date figures for Toulon (Var)
Toulon: Population and Area
With 180,774 inhabitants (INSEE total population in force on January 1, 2026), Toulon is the 12th most populous town in France in 2026 and the most populous in the Var department, out of 153 communes. It covers 43 km² (1,739th largest area in France, 47th largest in the department), with a population density of 4,220 inhabitants per km², or 39 times the national average (110 inhabitants/km²), which ranks it 186th in France for density.
Toulon is located in the Var department (83), in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, where it ranks 3rd by population out of 946 communes. It is the most populous town in the Var department, which is home to 1,135,585 people over 5,973 km².
See the full ranking of communes in the Var department and the regional ranking: largest city in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur.
Towns of similar size in the Var department: La Seyne-sur-Mer (pop. 64,430), Fréjus (pop. 60,503), Hyères (pop. 56,763).
Sources: INSEE, official population figures in force on January 1, 2026 (total population); areas: IGN / Observatoire des territoires; INSEE code 83137. Rankings are calculated across the 34,858 communes of metropolitan and overseas France in our database.
Why Toulon ranks among the largest cities in France
Toulon owes its size to the sea: the country's leading naval port and seat of the maritime prefecture for the Mediterranean, the city was built around its arsenal and its harbor, one of the most beautiful in Europe. Capital of the Var department, it is the third-largest city in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur after Marseille and Nice.
A big city with no room to grow
Squeezed between Mont Faron and the coastline, the town of Toulon can hardly expand any further: its population within city limits changes little, while growth shifts to neighboring towns such as La Seyne-sur-Mer, Hyères, La Garde and Six-Fours-les-Plages. That is why the Toulon urban area carries far more weight than the town alone, and why Toulon appears in the ranking of large French cities with a high density for a city in the south of France. The Toulon-Provence-Méditerranée metropolitan authority, the commercial port serving Corsica and the university round out this regional weight.