Author: Sandra Brée, POPP project lead (CNRS-LARHRA)
A century ago, the majority of Paris’s residents came from elsewhere. Young adults dominated, single people were overrepresented, and there were established social differences between neighbourhoods. In this new issue of Population & Societies, CNRS historian-demographer Sandra Brée and the POPP1 project team – of which Ined is a member – paint a portrait of the last century’s Parisians. Based on newly accessible individual data from the 1926-1936 censuses, the study exposes deep parallels between interwar Paris and the Paris of today. The new light it sheds on the specificities of Paris’s population can also be explored in the upcoming exhibit at the Carnavalet-History of Paris Museum, “The People of Paris (1926-1936)”, opening on October 8*.
Paris’s most densely populated period
A century ago, Paris’s demographic dynamics were unsurpassed, continuing the steady growth it had begun in the second half of the 19th century. During this period, the population of Paris reached its all-time peak of 2.9 million residents.
Already a cosmopolitan city
In the interwar period, the majority of residents were born outside the city: mostly in other departments of metropolitan France, but also abroad or in the French colonies. In 1926, only a third of Parisians were born in Paris, a fact that has barely changed a hundred years later.
At that time, men were more likely than women to come from abroad or from the French colonies and protectorates. Paris appeled to young professionals as well as to artists and political exiles. Such diversity of origins – at once geographic and social – had already emerged as a strong trait of Paris’s population. Today, diversity remains one of the capital’s major demographic markers.
A Paris of singles
In 1926, Paris already stood out for its very high proportion of single people, much higher than elsewhere in France—a characteristic that is still pronounced today. At that time, more women than men, fewer children, and many young adults lived in the city. The fertility rate was lower than in the rest of France, infant mortality was still high, and many people lived alone. In addition to single people, divorced people and those living in consensual union were also overrepresented compared to the rest of France. These behaviours would continue to increase. But of all these specific characteristics, the proportion of single people has remained the most stable over time.
Lasting social inequalities between neighbourhoods
In interwar Paris, the western neighbourhoods were the wealthiest and often employed domestic workers. The working-class eastern parts of the city were the poorest. These historic territorial disparities still structure the social geography of Paris today.
