Key economic sector

Montpellier: 3rd most popular congress city in France according to the 2016 ICCA ranking 

Demography

1st for demographic development in France

8th largest city in France 

434 101 inhabitants in 31 cities in Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole, an area of 423.21 square kilometers

50% of the population under 34 years old (Source: National Institute for Statistics)

3rd most popular city in France for its working environment

Montpellier : 3rd national rank regarding the number of students compared to the global population.

Overall, the Academy of Montpellier (5 departments) welcomes 103 500 students on its territory, all of them distributed throughout more than 70 establishments of higher education (universities, institutes, schools and private or public high schools)

The urban area of Montpellier alone receives around 68 000 students, and 10 000 of whom are foreign students.

Economy & Innovation

1st French location for public-sector research intensity: INRA, CNRS, CIRAD, INSERM, IRD and IRSTEA (National Institute for Statistics)

4th best business incubator in the world for start-ups

5 excellence sectors supported by 7 competitiveness clusters

Health: Eurobiomed competitiveness cluster; Sanofi, Horiba Medical, Bausch&Lomb

Agronomics: Qualiméditerranée competitiveness cluster; Kraft Foods Mondelez

ICT: Optitec competitiveness cluster; IBM, Dell, Ubisoft, Intel, Free, Orange

Environment: Derbi, Trimatec and Risques competitiveness clusters; Schlumberger, EDF Energies Nouvelles, Veolia Energie

Water: global water competitiveness cluster; Egis Eau, Deinove, Groupe EDF Suez