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Who were the Parisians living in your neighborhood 100 years ago?

undefined undefined 5 octobre 2025 undefined 07h30

The Editor

© Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet

Thanks to a new database from the Archives of Paris, you can now explore Parisian apartments from a century ago. It's like a digital time machine that reveals a bustling, single, and already very unequal capital.

Imagine being able to travel back in time and sneak into the Parisian apartments of the Roaring Twenties… Here’s a little gem found online: the Archives of Paris have just made the censuses from 1926, 1931, and 1936 freely accessible. Yes, yes, just that. This means you can literally spy on who lived in your building almost 100 years ago.

A true time machine into the Paris of the interwar period, but in digital form, complete with names, addresses, occupations, marital statuses… It only takes a few clicks to explore the past of over 8 million Parisians. And guess what: there were already lots of people and quite a few inequalities.


When AI Joins the Archives

Behind this achievement lies a bit of a crazy project, led by Sandra Brée, a researcher at CNRS, who initially wanted to understand why there were so many divorces in Paris. She started compiling the data manually, until AI came along and changed everything.

In collaboration with researchers from the University of Rouen, specialists in handwriting recognition, the project of océrisation comes to life. Okay, the term sounds a bit technical, but océriser means making a text readable by a machine from an image. The result? Years of work squeezed into just a few months and an incredibly valuable database to illustrate Paris 100 years ago.


Paris, a bustling capital

In 1921, Paris reached its population peak: 2.9 million inhabitants, nearly a million more than today. It was the time of industrialization, rural exodus, and fast-paced life in a city that was already magnetic. And the craziest part? Barely one...

One third of Parisians were born in Paris. Even back then, the capital attracted a massive influx of rural residents and foreigners.


City of Singles... and No Kids

It's an understatement to say there’s no shortage of info about the old "Paname." Back in 1926, Paris was already a city of solos. 32% of Parisian women were single, compared to 27% in the rest of France. And today? We're at 41% of singles in the...a capital. A surprising figure, but revealing a deeper trend.

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And the children? Already quite few in number. The age pyramid of 1926 even has a tree shape with a big dip between ages 5 and 10. One explanation: many children were sent to the countryside to be cared for. Quite an atmosphere.


Paris, the divorce capital (before everyone else)

Already d ```In the 1930s, Paris stands out as a rebel with the highest divorce rate in the country. In 1936, over 3% of Parisian women are divorced, while it's under 1% elsewhere. The reason? The anonymity of the big city, no doubt.


And what about the wealthy in all this?

Spoiler: they were already in the west. Literally. In 1926, 40% of residents in the 16th had a servant, compared to barely 0.9% in the 20th. Nothing new under the Haussmannian sun.


The must-see expo

If you want to see (and learn) more, rush over to the Carnavalet Museum starting on October 8th for the People of Paris exhibit. Dive into Paris during the interwar period through these unique censuses. Thrills guaranteed (even without a time machine).