Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
2,465 residents make their home in this town in Calvados, Normandy.
Jobs and pay hold up well: 2.4 jobs per working resident; 7.4% unemployment. Its weakest subject is cost of living: at the median price, a 70 m² home costs 7.9 times the median annual income per consumption unit in the intercommunality. Its remaining grades are unremarkable: B for schools and B− for walkability. It has 2,500 jobs for 1,050 working residents.
Figures: employment and commuting, INSEE census 2023 · prices, DVF · income per consumption unit (an income adjusted for household size), INSEE Filosofi · brevet and bac results, Ministry of Education · amenities, INSEE BPE 2025. Saint-Contest has subject grades but no overall grade: French towns get one from 2,500 residents.
Hazard risk isn’t graded in France yet: national flood maps cover only some areas.
The 2 things Saint-Contest does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compares Saint-Contest with other French towns of 2,500 or more, ordered by how far its rank is from the middle. American and UK towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades French towns →
Saint-Contest has 1 historic monument on the Culture ministry’s list: 1 classé, the highest protection, and 0 inscrit, the second level.
4.1% of its homes were built before 1919, against 7.4% in the median compared French town.
Heritage, museums and other places to visit in and near Saint-Contest. Best known first.
ChâteauChâteau de Caen4.3 km southeast, in Caen
MuseumMusée des Beaux-Arts de Caen4.4 km southeast, in Caen
MuseumPlan de Rome par Paul Bigot3.8 km southeast, in Caen
MuseumMusée de Normandie4.4 km southeast, in Caen
Theme parkFestyland3.8 km southwest, in Bretteville-sur-OdonPhotos from Wikimedia Commons, each under its own licence (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Saint-Contest.
Care access and life expectancy are shown for context, not graded.
Average lifespans in Calvados: 85.5 years for women, 78.9 for men (2025), against 85.9 and 80.3 nationally. France’s death rates at each age would predict 180 deaths in Saint-Contest from 2016 to 2025; there were 128, 29% fewer. For a family doctor, residents of Saint-Contest can choose among 4 GPs.
Source: INSEE, deaths by commune of residence 2016–2025 and censuses; Eurostat, death rates by age (© European Union); INSEE, BPE 2025; DREES, APL 2024; INSEE, life expectancy by département 2025 · Licence Ouverte · That adjustment for care homes is a model of TownRatings’ own, not official data.
Rents are the ministry’s estimates of advertised rents, not rents actually paid.
Advertised rents are estimated at €13.51/m² a month, above both Calvados’ towns (€12.67/m²) and compared French towns (€12.41/m²). The market in Saint-Contest: 62 sales of houses and apartments between July 2023 and June 2026. Renting a house costs an estimated €11.49/m² a month.
| By type | Median per m² | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Houses | €2,815/m² | 58 |
Source: DGFiP, DVF property sales (Etalab geolocated); Housing Ministry, Carte des loyers 2025; INSEE, Filosofi 2023 · Licence Ouverte
France has no History Grade yet: this card describes, it doesn’t grade.
Among the classé monuments in Saint-Contest is Église Saint-Contest. Homes from before 1919 make up 4.1% of the total, below Calvados’ towns (8.1%) and compared French towns (7.4%) alike.
Ministère de la Culture, Mérimée (Licence Ouverte 2.0) · INSEE, census 2023, homes by build period
Primary schools aren’t graded: France doesn’t publish their results by school.
Vocational results within 5 km: 88% passed the bac pro, of 416 candidates at 5 lycées. At the lycées within 5 km of Saint-Contest, 95.5% passed the bac, higher than both Calvados’ towns (93.2%) and compared French towns (92.9%).
| School | Level | Candidates | Passed, 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collège Jacques MonodNearest collègeCollège | Collège | 124 | 90%−1 pt |
| CaenSup Sainte-Ursule PrivateNearest lycéeGeneral lycée | General lycée | 87 | 97%±0 pts |
| Lycée professionnel de l'Oasis PrivateBest against expectations: 7 points above the expected rateVocational lycée | Vocational lycée | 29 | 100%+7 pts |
Ministry of Education (DEPP) · brevet and bac 2025, value added (IVAC, IVAL) · Licence Ouverte
Unemployment stood at 7.4%, lower than both Calvados’ towns (10.3%) and compared French towns (10.1%). Just over one in ten commuters left the car at home at the census, walking, cycling or taking public transport. At the census, 3.8% of working residents in Saint-Contest didn’t travel to work at all.
Source: INSEE, census 2023 (commuting, employment, jobs at place of work); INSEE, Filosofi 2023 · Licence Ouverte
Those aged 15 to 24 account for 12% of residents. 18% are under 15, above both Calvados’ towns (16%) and compared French towns (17%). Saint-Contest has a median age of 46.1 years.
51% women, 49% men
About 95 men for every 100 women. Median share of women: Calvados 52.0%, France 51.8%.
| Saint-Contest | Calvados median | France median | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 18% | 16% | 17% |
| 15–24 | 12% | 11% | 11% |
| 25–44 | 19% | 22% | 23% |
| 45–64 | 28% | 26% | 26% |
| 65+ | 23% | 25% | 22% |
| No diploma | 8.8% | 23% | 19% |
| CAP or BEP | 19% | 28% | 26% |
| Baccalauréat | 17% | 17% | 18% |
| Higher education | 51% | 26% | 30% |
INSEE, census 2023 · Calvados median and France median: the median of compared communes
The yearly rates for 2023–2025: 2.2 violent offenses and 11.1 graded property crimes per 1,000 residents. Police and gendarmerie recorded 35 offenses in Saint-Contest in 2025. The commonest graded crime here was criminal damage (2025).
Not in the gradeTheft without violence, drug use and fraud are shown for information but left out of the Safety Grade, which counts violence plus burglaries, vehicle thefts, thefts from vehicles and criminal damage per resident.
Source: SSMSI (Interior Ministry), recorded crime by commune, 2023–2025 · Licence Ouverte · Small counts of family violence, other physical violence, sexual violence and vehicle theft go unpublished (five or fewer in at least one of the last three years); the département’s average stands in, 25.0% of the index here. The count covers the offense categories the Safety Grade uses.
Saint-Contest has one historic monument; beside it, the nearest classé monuments in other towns, within 15.5 mi.
Église Saint-Contest: Photo: Ikmo-ned · CC BY-SA 3.0
One notable person was born in Saint-Contest.
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more. The map uses IGN’s commune boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Contest | 2,465 | — | — | C− | — | A |
| Carpiquet | 3,428 | 2.5 | B− | C− | B+ | B− |
| Caen | 109,400 | 2.7 | D | D | D | B− |
| Bretteville-sur-Odon | 4,494 | 3.1 | A | D | A | A |
| Hérouville-Saint-Clair | 23,470 | 3.2 | C− | C+ | C+ | C+ |
| Rots | 2,544 | 3.4 | — | C | — | A |
| Biéville-Beuville | 3,840 | 3.7 | — | C− | — | B+ |
People: INSEE, census 2023. Miles: center to center.
Saint-Contest has no Safety Grade: over a quarter of its index would rest on the département’s average. In 2025 police and gendarmerie recorded 9 burglaries and 16 acts of criminal damage.
They grade B, better than 57% of compared French towns. 97% of 87 candidates passed the bac at CaenSup Sainte-Ursule in 2025, at the expected rate given its pupils’ backgrounds. Primary schools aren’t graded: France doesn’t publish their results by school.
Incomes are higher than in most compared French towns, so Saint-Contest grades C− for cost of living.
Commune in Calvados, Normandy
Saint-Contest is a commune of 2,465 people in the Communauté urbaine Caen la Mer. TownRatings compares communes, France’s local unit: each has its own mayor and its own statistics. Its area takes in the town and the countryside around it.
Built from INSEE’s 2026 official geography (COG) and IGN Admin Express boundaries
Sources: INSEE, census 2023 (population, employment, commuting) · INSEE, Filosofi 2023 (income per consumption unit, poverty) · DGFiP, DVF property sales, July 2023 to June 2026 · Housing Ministry, Carte des loyers 2025 · SSMSI, recorded crime by commune, 2023–2025 · Ministry of Education (DEPP), brevet and bac results and value-added indicators, 2025 · INSEE, deaths by commune of residence 2016–2025 and censuses 2012–2023; Eurostat, death rates by age (© European Union); INSEE, BPE 2025 (care homes, emergency and maternity units, GPs, pharmacies); DREES, APL 2024; INSEE, life expectancy by département 2025 (provisional) · INSEE, BPE 2025 and Filosofi 200 m grid (walking distances) · IGN Admin Express (boundaries) · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranking French towns against each other only, updated October 30, 2026. Under the Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab).
Contains public sector information under the Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab): INSEE, DGFiP, the Interior Ministry’s statistics service (SSMSI), the Ministry of Education (DEPP), the Health Ministry’s statistics service (DREES) and the Housing Ministry (Carte des loyers). Commune boundaries: IGN Admin Express.