According to latest data from the National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee) published this Wednesday, the population of Haute-Garonne continues to increase significantly in recent years.

As of January 1, 2019, the Department has 1,400,039 inhabitants, compared to 1,380,672 the previous year. Between 2013 and 2019, the population increase represents + 1.3% per year, or each year 16,900 additional inhabitants, the equivalent of the municipality of Balma.

Unsurprisingly, the Toulouse metropolitan area “contributes 80% to the increase in the population of the department”. It is the fifth most populous agglomeration in France, after those of Paris, Lyon, Marseille-Aix en Provence and Lille. It welcomes 13,375 additional inhabitants each year. By way of comparison, that of Saint-Gaudens, the second largest agglomeration in the department, has 16,247 inhabitants.

Other lessons: “the main agglomerations of the department are attractive and gain inhabitants”. Only the Luchon valley is losing inhabitants, “due to a high natural deficit, deaths being more numerous than births”.

Toulouse as dynamic as ever

As of January 1, 2019, 493,465 people resided in the Pink City, against 486,828 in 2018. In terms of population, it is the fourth largest city in France behind Paris, Marseille and Lyon. The four other most populated communes of the department are Colomiers, Tournefeuille, Blagnac and Muret. All belong to the Toulouse metropolitan area.
For Sacha Briand, deputy mayor in charge of the census, the increase in the Toulouse population “is part of the dynamic that we know in our territory”, and testifies to “the attractiveness of the city” even if ” the objective is not to see the population increase constantly ”.

The elected representative also invites to look at “long trends”, and not “the result of a year”. In fact, towns with 10,000 inhabitants or more carry out a survey every year with a sample of addresses representing 8% of their homes. “Depending on the year, the sectors surveyed may have more or less significant population increases due to the dynamics of housing. The complete census is therefore only visible every eight years, ”says Sacha Briand. For Christophe Pealaprat of regional action at INSEE “the economic reasons” and “the softness of Occitania” explain the attractiveness of the Region, and in particular of Haute-Garonne.
The census collection started on January 20 and will end on February 26 (February 19 in towns with less than 10,000 inhabitants). Recruitments are carried out by town halls. The health situation had led to postpone the 2021 annual census survey until 2022, but “the comparison of changes in the population, migratory balance and natural balance over periods of different lengths remains nonetheless relevant, because all data is displayed on an annual average, ”assures INSEE.