In 2022, there were 375,415 Deux-Sévriens. Relative stability if we compare to the 374,743 inhabitants counted in 2016, the reference year chosen for comparison. This is indicated by the latest census figures released this Thursday, December 19, 2024 by INSEE Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
The department owes this stability to the arrival of new inhabitants and not to its own demographic dynamism. Births do not compensate for deaths: if we looked at this simple balance, the population would have fallen by 0.2% each year for six years.
“A level never reached since the 1970s”
The City of Niort is one of the growing areas. A symbolic milestone, that of 60,000 inhabitants, has even been crossed: the city-prefecture has 60,074 inhabitants compared to 59,005 in 2016, an increase of 0.3% each year. Between 2021 and 2022, it gained 765 inhabitants.
“Since 2013, Niort has gained nearly 2,700 inhabitants”underlines the City, welcoming this growth: “The increase has been real for ten years and confirms the attractiveness of our city which attracts new residents, as the success of the annual welcome ceremonies shows. This population level is a level never reached since the 1970s and the merger with Saint-Liguaire (1). At the end of the 1990s, the population of Niort had even fallen below 57,000 inhabitants. »
Bressuire also remains on an upward slope with annual growth of 0.3%: the capital of Bocage, 19,860 inhabitants, is no longer far from the 20,000 mark. Saint-Maixent-l’École, very dynamic for several years, continues on this trajectory with 7,433 inhabitants (+ 1.6% on average per year). The military city capitalizes on its position halfway between Niort and Poitiers, its TER service and its role as a “refuge” for those driven away by real estate prices in the Niort area.
On the other hand, further south, Melle remains struggling with a loss of 1.4% on average each year: 5,790 inhabitants compared to 6,284 six years earlier.
Thouars has fallen below the 14,000 inhabitants mark (13,949 precisely) but over time, the town relatively manages to stabilize (-0.2%). Parthenay, if we take into account the period studied, continues to decline: -0.4% each year. Despite everything, between 2021 and 2022, it goes from 10,058 to 10,121 inhabitants, while the capital of Gâtine was at high risk, if nothing changed, of being relegated below the 10,000 mark. The start of a trend reversal? We will have to wait until the end of 2025 and the updating of the data to find out.
(1) This district of Niort was an independent commune until 1972.
La Rochelle on the rise, Angoulême stagnates
Deux-Sèvres is not the only department of Nouvelle-Aquitaine where, without the arrival of new inhabitants, the population would decrease, with births not being numerous enough to ensure generational renewal. “If all the departments of the region welcome more new inhabitants than they lose, only Gironde has more births than deaths,” observes INSEE.
If Deux-Sèvres experiences almost no growth, Vienne is also stable (+ 0.1%), Charente-Maritime grows by 0.7% and Charente declines (- 0.1%).
La Rochelle is experiencing strong growth (+1.5%) while Poitiers is growing by 0.5%. Angoulême, on the other hand, stagnates with + 0.1% per year.
