It’s not new: every year, the population decreases in the French capital. As usual, on December 19th, Insee published its annual report confirming that the decline continues. If on January 1, 2021, the capital had 2,133,111 inhabitants, by January 1, 2022, a decrease of 0.9% (which is 19,406 inhabitants) was recorded, leaving 2,113,705 inhabitants remaining. Significant decreases like this have been rare in recent years.
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An Increasingly Significant Decline
The observation is clear: this somewhat drastic decline is due neither to a drop in births nor an increase in deaths. It seems that Parisians are willingly leaving the capital. Over the span of eleven years, Paris has seen a decrease of nearly 6%. Moreover, according to the latest data from Insee, “Paris is experiencing the second largest population decline, in percentage terms, among communities with more than 100,000 inhabitants”, just after Mulhouse. If the average annual change was -0.54% for the period from 2011 to 2016, during the period from 2016 to 2022, it stands at -0.59% for Paris. In the same period, Mulhouse experienced a decline of -0.63%.
The Exponential Cost of Living Under Scrutiny
The capital is gradually emptying of its residents, and there are many reasons for this. At the forefront, we find, of course, the challenges and rising costs of housing. Between the lack of rental properties, the explosion in the number of vacant homes, and the excessive prices that make purchasing difficult — between €9,298 and €10,665 per square meter according to the FNAIM — the Parisian real estate market seems to be caught in a vicious cycle that discourages residents from staying.
According to a study conducted by Statista in 2021, 44% of Parisians indicated that it was likely they would leave the capital in the next five years.Voir cette publication sur Instagram
