INSEE has just published the latest figures for the reference population of the Occitanie region as of January 1, 2022. According to the statistics institute, with its 6,080,731 inhabitants, Occitanie is still the 4th most populated region. populated by France.
INSEE has just published the latest figures for the reference population of the Occitanie region as of January 1, 2022. According to the statistics institute, with its 6,080,731 inhabitants, Occitanie is still the 4th most populated region. populated by France.
An increase due to migration
Between January 1, 2016 and 2022, the population of Occitanie has approximately 45,000 additional inhabitants each year, the equivalent of a city like Sète or Alès. A population which therefore continues to increase rapidly, at a rate of +0.8% per year, significantly more sustained than at the national level (0.3%), due to migration.
Hérault, 1st in terms of attractiveness
It is therefore these migratory movements, and not the balance between births and deaths, which maintain demographic growth, at a rate equivalent to what it was between 2011 and 2016. Haute-Garonne is the French department where the population is increasing the fastest ahead of Hérault: + 1.3% per year between 2016 and 2022. Hérault is very close, at + 1.2% per year. These are two very attractive departments, Hérault even more so, which places it at the forefront of the Occitanie departments in terms of attractiveness.
A stable population in Lozère and Aveyron
In the other departments of Eastern Occitanie, deaths are greater than or equal to births. The population is almost stable in Lozère and Aveyron. It is progressing significantly in Aude, Gard and Pyrénées-Orientales (from +0.4% to +0.6% per year). No department in Occitanie is losing population, although it is growing faster in the large urban centers and their suburbs than in other territories.
307,101 inhabitants in Montpellier
The population of municipalities such as Montpellier (+ 1.5% with 307,101 inhabitants), Béziers (+ 0.9% with 80,815 inhabitants), Narbonne (+ 0.9% with 56,692 inhabitants) is thus increasing at the rate of migrations, with a record for Alès (+ 2% with 45,025 inhabitants) which has 5,055 more souls over six years.
The population is increasing even faster in the Montpellier conurbation (+1.7% per year), 12th in France with 480,915 inhabitants and the leading French conurbation with more than 100,000 inhabitants for its growth rate. It is progressing more slowly in the urban unit of Perpignan (207,644 inhabitants, + 0.5% per year) and stagnating in that of Nîmes (185,681 inhabitants).
