Official population of France stands at 65,241,241

THE official statistics body, Insee, has said that the number of people living in France and its overseas territories in 2012 was 65,241,241.

This was an increase of just over 300,000 on the previous year, while if metropolitan France is taken alone then the number is 63,375,971.

Regionally and the Paris area is the largest by a long way with a population of nearly 12 million, Rhône-Alpes comes in second with 6.3 million and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur is third with just under five million.

Insee has also made a simple online database available that allows you to type in your commune and it will then tell you the population figure.