Valence Population and Area (Drôme)
Largest city in France 2026: up-to-date figures for Valence (Drôme)
Valence: Population and Area
With 65,647 inhabitants (INSEE total population in force on January 1, 2026), Valence is the 84th most populous town in France in 2026 and the most populous in the Drôme department, out of 362 communes. It covers 37 km² (2,525th largest area in France, 27th largest in the department), with a population density of 1,789 inhabitants per km², or 16 times the national average (110 inhabitants/km²), which ranks it 506th in France for density.
Valence is located in the Drôme department (26), in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region (formerly Rhône-Alpes), where it ranks 8th by population out of 4,025 communes. It is the most populous town in the Drôme department, which is home to 536,948 people over 6,525 km².
See the full ranking of communes in the Drôme department and the regional ranking: largest city in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
Towns of similar size in the Drôme department: Montélimar (pop. 41,752), Romans-sur-Isère (pop. 34,176), Bourg-lès-Valence (pop. 20,405).
Sources: INSEE, official population figures in force on January 1, 2026 (total population); areas: IGN / Observatoire des territoires; INSEE code 26362. Rankings are calculated across the 34,858 communes of metropolitan and overseas France in our database.
Valence, gateway to the South
Capital of the Drôme department and its most populous town, Valence grew up on the left bank of the Rhône, along the historic route linking Lyon to the Mediterranean. It is nicknamed the "gateway to the South": this is often where travelers coming from the north see the first southern landscapes appear.
A crossroads city
A Roman colony and later a bishop's seat, Valence owes its size to its position at a crossroads: the Rhône valley, the A7 highway, the railway with the Valence-Ville station, then the Valence TGV station, opened in 2001 on the LGV Méditerranée high-speed line. In the 20th century, industry, food processing and services attracted many residents, including a large Armenian community that settled there in the 1920s. Its old town, the Peynet bandstand and the Parc Jouvet look across the river to the Ardèche. The town's population has been stable for several decades, with growth taking place in the other towns of the urban area.