Brandon Donnelly

There are about 2.1 million people who live in Paris (2023 figure).

The metro area is, of course, much larger with over 13 million people. But if you look at Paris proper — that being the 20 arrondissements within the Boulevard Périphérique — it’s the 2.1 million number.

The footprint of this area is 105 km2, and so that means that Paris has an average population density within its administrative boundaries of just over 20,000 people per km2.

This is about 4.5x more dense than the City of Toronto as a whole. Which is why if you overlay the outline of Paris on top of Toronto, as Gil Meslin has done over here, you get this:

Ok, just for fun, three maps:

1) The outline of Paris, within the Périphérique, overlaid on central Toronto.
2) Toronto subway lines and stations within that area (including Crosstown).
3) Paris Métro lines (1-14) and stations within that same area. pic.twitter.com/i2xxHWoZGv

— Four-Storey Tower (@g_meslin) October 20, 2023

To be fair, there are pockets of Toronto that are very dense, even by Paris standards. North St. James Town, for example, was estimated at over 44,000 people per km2 back in 2016. But generally speaking, Toronto is not that.

And Gil’s maps do an excellent job of demonstrating it.