Best City to Live in France 2026: oui stars Travel Overall Ranking

DATA DESK | 2026 EDITION

The overall ranking is the balanced verdict: safety, employment, income, health, services, culture, education and housing.

The podium

Relative cohort index, not an absolute grade.

The complete top 15

The evidence behind the podium

Methodology and weights

Safety 20%; employment 15%; income 10%; healthcare 10%; services/retail 10%; sport/culture 10%; education 10%; housing 10%; family-sized homes 5%.

Each input is converted to a 0-to-100 percentile inside the eligible cohort. When lower is preferable, notably recorded crime and housing price, the percentile is inverted. The published weights then produce the final score.

Eligible universe

Metropolitan communes with at least 50,000 residents and complete inputs. The sample is 123 where DVF is not required and 116 where a 2025 property-price input is required.

Data vintages: SSMSI 2025; INSEE BPE 2025; INSEE Census housing and activity 2022; Filosofi 2023; DGFiP DVF transactions 2025; official geographic/population reference accessed in 2026.

How to use this ranking

Use it as a disciplined shortlist, not as an instruction to move. Reweight the indicators for your household, verify neighbourhood conditions, transport frequency, schools, rents and current listings, then visit at different times.

Limitations

A score of 100 means the strongest relative position, not perfection. Police-recorded crime reflects reporting and recording practices and may be affected by tourism and commuting. Equipment counts measure presence, not quality, hours or journey time. DVF observes completed sales, not rents or current availability. Vacancy is not the same as an immediately available home. Commune averages hide neighbourhood differences.

Official data and documentation

• SSMSI, base communale 2025
• Insee, BPE 2025
• Insee, logement 2022
• Insee, activité des résidents 2022
• Insee, Filosofi 2023
• DGFiP, DVF + agrégat communal documenté
• API Découpage administratif

Audit and corrections

The calculation joins sources by official commune code and consolidates arrondissement-level equipment data for Paris, Lyon and Marseille. oui stars Travel invites INSEE, SSMSI, DGFiP, municipalities and transport authorities to send corrections or finer comparable data. Documented corrections will be logged and scores recalculated.

Osama Samaha
Editor-in-Chief, oui stars Travel