Population of Paris

The population of Paris proper is 2,125,246 (1999), while approximately 9.6 million (1996) people—15 percent of the population of France—live in the Paris metropolitan area.

About half of this total live in the inner suburbs.

Lower housing costs and better living conditions in the suburbs have led to a continuous population shift from Paris proper to the suburbs, particularly to the outer suburbs.

Wealthier neighborhoods are concentrated in central Paris and in the western suburbs; lower-income areas lie to the north and east.

Immigrants and other foreign residents make up about 16 percent of the city’s total population.

The largest group are North Africans, the majority from Algeria. They are followed by Portuguese, West Africans, and Southeast Asians.

Most Parisians are Roman Catholics. Muslims make up the next largest religious group and Jews the third. There are smaller numbers of Protestants and Buddhists.