Map: Top 10 French departments best for health in new 2025 ranking
The results are based on factors including the number of cycle lanes, and hospitals per 10,000 residents
Hautes-Alpes (Embrun, L) and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (Digne-les-Bains, R) came top in the new ranking, and scored highly on cycling paths, low pollution, and health infrastructure
Francois Roux / Robert Harding Video / Shutterstock
The departments of Hautes-Alpes and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence have come top in a new ranking of the best places to live in France for a healthy life.
The second annual ranking by online and distance healthcare specialist Zava compared each department using the criteria of:
Kilometres of cycling lanes per 100km2
Doctors per 10,000 residents
Hospitals per 10,000 residents
Dietitians-nutritionists per 10,000 residents
All of the top 10 departments are in the south or south-east.
The Top 5 best places to live for health
The top 5 departments in the list are:
1. Hautes-Alpes: A wellbeing score of 9.53/10
The department was praised for its low pollution level (1.03/10) and strong medical infrastructure (50.3 doctors, 3.89 dieticians and 0.71 hospitals per 10,000 inhabitants). Up from 5th place in last year’s ranking.
2. Alpes-de-Haute-Provence: 9.51/10
Another department that scored well for pollution (1.58/10), it also scored highly on the number of ‘healthy’ shops, with 15.41 per 10,000 inhabitants. It was also praised for its high number of public bathing areas (431.41 per 10,000 inhabitants), but did not make first place due to its lower number of medical facilities.
This department came in top position last year.
Read more: How much does a house cost in ‘the healthiest department’ in France?
3. Savoie: 9.45/10
Savoie came in third due to its many beautiful trails and hiking paths, with 175.44 per 10,000 inhabitants. It also has a low pollution level score of 1.08/10, which is only slightly higher than winner Hautes-Alpes.
4. Pyrénées-Orientales: 9.33/10
This department came next for its low pollution score of 1.74, and relatively high wellbeing score.
5. Hautes-Pyrénées: 9.32
Closing out the top five, this department scored well due to its plethora of green spaces, and low pollution score of 1.86.
The rest of the best (placed 6-10)
The departments that ranked from six to 10 are:
6. Haute-Savoie: Wellbeing score of 9.24, pollution score of 2.16.
7. Hérault: Wellbeing score of 9.21, pollution score of 3.84.
8. Vaucluse: Wellbeing score of 9.12, pollution score of 3.73.
9. Isère: Wellbeing score of 8.97, pollution score of 2.92.
10. Pyrénées-Atlantiques: Wellbeing score of 8.96, pollution score of 3.14.
Read also: PHOTOS: Study shows greenest and healthiest places in live in France (2024)
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The least-healthy department
The department of Aisne (Hauts-de-France) scored lowest in the country for wellbeing and pollution, at 2.39/10 and 7.26/10 respectively.
It scored lower due to having just 0.53 kilometres of cycle paths per square kilometre, and only 0.13 hospitals per 10,000 inhabitants.
Other rankings
The second annual list from Zava comes amid other regular rankings that list the healthiest places to live in France.
Read also: Top 500 best places to live in France - is your commune on the list?
Read more: 2-year study reveals the best place to live in France
For example, newspaper Le Figaro regularly releases new lists, and in 2021 ranked the cities of Albi, Tarbes, Bordeaux, Grenoble, Antibes, Tours, Neuilly-sur-Seine, Toulouse, Montauban, and Bayonne as the healthiest overall, when considering overall health of residents, the number of doctors, and air quality.
Meanwhile, a more recent report (March 2024) found that people in France are in good health compared to their neighbours in other Western European countries, and their health overall has significantly improved in the past few decades.
Read also: France residents in better health than other countries, study shows
The report concluded that these good results are largely linked to the French national health system, which provides a good standard of care at a relatively low cost, particularly when compared to other nations.
Read more: ‘Healthy’ life expectancy is increasing in France
The report was compiled by researchers at the medical institute l’Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (Inserm), and at Bordeaux University and the Bordeaux CHU (hospital), with assistance from Santé publique France (SPF) and the national health service l'Assurance maladie.
It was shared by the Assurance maladie, published in the journal Lancet Regional Health, and can be viewed here.
