Paris had an estimated 2.04 million residents in 2026, making it France’s largest city.
The figure refers to the City of Paris, the 105.4-square-kilometre municipality centered on the Seine. It is distinct from the much larger Paris urban area and metropolitan region, which include extensive suburbs and millions more residents.
Paris began as the settlement of the Parisii, a Celtic people, and was identified by Julius Caesar in the first century BC as Lutetia Parisiorum. It became France’s political and cultural center and has been the national capital for most of the country’s modern history.
A common mix-up is confusing city population with metropolitan population. Paris’s municipality has declined from its 1921 peak of about 2.9 million, partly because residents and families moved to suburbs, while the wider metropolitan area continued to grow. The city remains France’s largest municipality and its best-known global center for government, culture, fashion, finance, and tourism.