Haute-Savoie on the podium of the departments in full demographic “boom”
The northern Alps continue to gain inhabitants, according to the latest INSEE census, even if the rate of population growth is slower. Like Haute-Savoie, still in the top 3 of the most dynamic departments.
We were nearly 67 million French people living in France in 2019. The latest figures published by INSEE (National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies) on December 29, 2021 declare an increase in the population at the national level, progressing 0.4% compared to 2013.
The situation is the same in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, which has now passed the 8 million inhabitants mark. Concentrating 12.3% of the French population, it remains the second most populous region behind France’s Island.
Growth, therefore, over the last half-decade. But at a slower pace because of the aging of the population, barely offset by its natural balance (births compared to deaths: + 0.4%). Also because of an attractiveness which remains high – with a net migration still positive of + 0.3% – but which is no longer increasing.
In this panorama of the greater region, nothing distinguishes the three Alpine departments. All are indeed gaining population. Isère with 35,779 more inhabitants. Savoie which won 12,719. And above all Haute-Savoie, at the top of the “winners” of new arrivals, with 56,417 new Haut-Savoyards.
Haute-Savoie is the department of the region where the population increase is the strongest with an increase of + 1.2% per year between 2013 and 2019. Haute-Savoie thus ranks third among metropolitan departments, behind Gironde and Haute-Garonne, where arrivals are the most sustained.
Good figures from Haute-Savoie which can be explained by a regional planning rule: demographic growth differs according to the catchment areas of the cities. No wonder, therefore, to see the increase in the population of a city like Annecy, which benefits from its privileged location on the golden axis of regional economic attraction, namely the director of Clermont – Lyon – Geneva.
Located to the south of this axis, Grenoble has lost inhabitants since 2013: 160,441 inhabitants in 2019 against 162,441 in 2013. As for the Chambéry metropolis, it seems to follow the same curve. It compared to 60,478 inhabitants in 2019 60,574 in 2013.