Tours Population and Area (Indre-et-Loire)
Largest city in France 2026: up-to-date figures for Tours (Indre-et-Loire)
Tours: Population and Area
With 141,746 inhabitants (INSEE total population in force on January 1, 2026), Tours is the 27th most populous town in France in 2026 and the most populous in the Indre-et-Loire department, out of 272 communes. It covers 35 km² (2,878th largest area in France, 42nd largest in the department), with a population density of 4,088 inhabitants per km², or 37 times the national average (110 inhabitants/km²), which ranks it 194th in France for density.
Tours is located in the Indre-et-Loire department (37), in the Centre-Val de Loire region (formerly Centre), where it ranks 1st by population out of 1,754 communes. It is the most populous town in the Indre-et-Loire department, which is home to 631,334 people over 6,127 km².
See the full ranking of communes in the Indre-et-Loire department and the regional ranking: largest city in Centre-Val de Loire.
Towns of similar size in the Indre-et-Loire department: Joué-lès-Tours (pop. 38,836), Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire (pop. 17,301), Saint-Pierre-des-Corps (pop. 16,124).
Sources: INSEE, official population figures in force on January 1, 2026 (total population); areas: IGN / Observatoire des territoires; INSEE code 37261. Rankings are calculated across the 34,858 communes of metropolitan and overseas France in our database.
Tours, the largest city in Centre-Val de Loire
Capital of the Indre-et-Loire department, Tours is the most populous town in the Centre-Val de Loire region, ahead of Orléans, even though Orléans is the regional capital. Built between the Loire and the Cher, in the heart of Touraine and the Loire Valley châteaux, the city owes its size to a long history: Roman city, sanctuary of Saint Martin, royal capital under the Valois, and France's leading silk city.
A city squeezed between two rivers
The site of Tours, a narrow strip of land between the Loire and the Cher, long held the town back; it later spread south of the Cher with the large postwar neighborhoods. Its density remains high for a city outside the Paris region. One hour from Paris by TGV, home to a university and to the region's largest employer, the CHRU teaching hospital, Tours attracts students and workers from the Paris region, and its population is rising again after a long period of stability, while the urban area keeps growing in the neighboring towns.