what are the most sporty cities in France?

The Paris Olympic Games are just around the corner, which gave the start-up City of Dreams the opportunity to establish its ranking of the most sporting municipalities in France. And in this little game, our municipalities particularly stand out.

This ranking is based on a few indicators such as the rate of the population licensed by a sports federation, the sports facilities in the municipality (absolute number of facilities and per 10,000 inhabitants, diversity and completeness of facilities), sports associations (absolute number and per 10,000 inhabitants, diversity and completeness of clubs), as well as the number of sports federations present via at least one club in the city.

Each municipality then obtains a score out of 100 points, so that a ranking emerges.

Gap, the sportiest town in our departments, Chambéry 4^e you top national

It is the town of Gap which tops the ranking of towns in our departments with a score of 92/100, the third highest national rate.

This very good score is explained by the presence of 60 sports federations in the city, as well as a rate of 87% of sports facilities, i.e. 89 facilities built in the Gapençaise city. Nothing surprising since the Gapençaise city had been elected the most sporting city by the newspaper The Team in 2013.

Just behind, we find the commune of Varces-Allières-et-Risset, in the Grenoble metropolitan area with a very good score of 91/100 (it is ranked fifth in the national ranking), equally with the towns of Évian-les-Bains (Haute-Savoie) and Annonay (Ardèche).

In terms of the national ranking of large and medium-sized cities, three of our cities are in the top 10: Chambéry in fourth place with a more than honorable score of 90/100, Valence is eighth with a score of 86/100, followed from Grenoble with 85/100. Outside the top 10, Annecy ranks 12^e (84/100) and Avignon finds itself a distant 25^e place with 77/100.

The top 10 of the sportiest small towns in France

1. Cahors (Lot) : 93/100
2. Gap (Hautes-Alpes): 92/100
3. Varces-Allières-et-Risset (Isère): 91/100
4. Annonay (Ardèche): 91/100
5. Remire-Montjoly (Guyane) : 91/100
6. Argelès-sur-Mer (Pyrénées-Orientales): 91/100
7. Vesoul (Haute-Saône): 91/100
8. Évian-les-Bains (Haute-Savoie): 91/100
9. Voiron (Isère): 90/100
10. Valbonne (Alpes-Maritimes): 90/100

Note the domination of the cities of the Grenoble conurbation in the top 20: Sassenage at 11^e place (90/100), Seyssinet-Pariset at 12^e place (90/100), Montbonnot-Saint-Martin and 14^e place (89/100), Meylan in 16^e place (89/100), Eybens at 17^e place (89/100) as well as the city of Valserhône, in Ain, present at the 22^e place (88/100)

Embrun and Chamonix at the top of the most sporty small towns

On the scale of towns and “villages” (according to the start-up’s classification, there are many towns in this top), mountain areas stand out. The top 3 is dominated by mountain resorts: Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via in the Pyrénées Orientales, followed by Embrun (Hautes-Alpes) and Chamonix-Mont-Blanc (Haute-Savoie).

In the latter municipality, the rate of licensees of 61% with 30 federations present, 83 sports associations and coverage of sports equipment of almost 93%. Very good figures, but incomparable with the Font Romeu resort and its approximately 70% of licensees and its 350 sports associations per 10,000 inhabitants.

The top 10 sportiest towns and “villages” in France

1. Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via (Pyrénées-Orientales): 100/100
2. Chamonix-Mont-Blanc (Haute-Savoie) : 98/100
3. Embrun (Hautes-Alpes) : 97/100
4. Bourg-Saint-Maurice (Savoie) : 95/100
5. Mende (Lozere): 93/100
6. Lacanau (Gironde): 92/100
7. Huez (Isère) : 92/100
8. Digne-les-Bains (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) : 92/100
9. Château-Arnoux-Saint-Auban (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) : 92/100
10. Briançon (Hautes-Alpes) : 92/100

Note the presence of Veynes (Hautes-Alpes) at 12^e place (91/100), La Plagne-Tarentaise (Savoie) at 13^e place (91/100), Les Deux Alpes (Isère) at 14^e place (91/100), Barcelonnette (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) at 16^e place (91/100), Samoëns (Haute-Savoie) at 17^e place (90/100), Megève (Haute-Savoie) at 18^e place (90/100), Val d’Isère (Savoie) in 19^e place (90/100), Villard-de-Lans (Isère) in 21^e place (89/100) et Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur (Hautes-Alpes) in 24^e place (88/100)