Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 3,000 in Charente-Maritime, Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
People here tend to be in good health: after allowing for care homes, deaths from 2016 to 2025 were 20% below expected, against 12% below for the median of compared French towns. Prices are high against local incomes: at the median price, a 70 m² home costs 10.3 times the median annual income per consumption unit in the intercommunality. The rest of its grades are middling: B for schools and B for jobs & income. Holiday and other second homes account for 14% of homes.
Figures: deaths, INSEE (by commune of residence, 2016–2025) · prices, DVF · income per consumption unit (an income adjusted for household size), INSEE Filosofi · brevet and bac results, Ministry of Education · employment, INSEE census 2023. L'Houmeau has no overall grade because safety isn’t graded here.
Hazard risk isn’t graded in France yet: national flood maps cover only some areas.
Each subject compares L'Houmeau 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.
L'Houmeau has no overall grade because safety isn’t graded here.
How TownRatings grades French towns →
The 3 things L'Houmeau does most differently from other towns.
The Culture ministry lists no building in L'Houmeau as a monument historique. That’s true of 25% of compared French towns too.
The nearest classé monument is Ancien domaine du Portail, in Nieul-sur-Mer, 1.7 mi away.
4.5% of its homes were built before 1919, against 7.4% in the median compared French town.
Explore the history →Nothing in L'Houmeau is on the monuments historiques list. These are the nearest classé monuments, within 15.5 mi.
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in L'Houmeau.
Rents are the ministry’s estimates of advertised rents, not rents actually paid.
The estimated advertised rent is €13.96/m² a month, higher than both Charente-Maritime’s towns (€12.46/m²) and compared French towns (€12.41/m²). Among the homes sold, 92% were houses. From July 2023 to June 2026, 98 homes were sold in L'Houmeau.
| By type | Median per m² | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Houses | €4,023/m² | 90 |
Source: DGFiP, DVF property sales (Etalab geolocated); Housing Ministry, Carte des loyers 2025; INSEE, Filosofi 2023 · Licence Ouverte
Over-65s are just over a third of the population. 15% are under 15, higher than Charente-Maritime’s towns (12%) yet lower than compared French towns (17%). People aged 15 to 24 make up 7.7% of the town.
53% women, 47% men
About 87 men for every 100 women. Median share of women: Charente-Maritime 53.1%, France 51.8%. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
| L'Houmeau | Charente-Maritime median | France median | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 15% | 12% | 17% |
| 15–24 | 7.7% | 7.6% | 11% |
| 25–44 | 18% | 17% | 23% |
| 45–64 | 24% | 27% | 26% |
| 65+ | 35% | 36% | 22% |
| No diploma | 13% | 19% | 19% |
| CAP or BEP | 21% | 29% | 26% |
| Baccalauréat | 18% | 18% | 18% |
| Higher education | 42% | 27% | 30% |
INSEE, census 2023 · Charente-Maritime median and France median: the median of compared communes
500 jobs are based in L'Houmeau, for 1,100 working residents (0.4 per worker). Unemployment stood at 9.3%, below Charente-Maritime’s towns (11.0%) and compared French towns (10.1%) alike. Public transport took 4.9% of the town’s working residents to work at the census.
Source: INSEE, census 2023 (commuting, employment, jobs at place of work); INSEE, Filosofi 2023 · Licence Ouverte
Care access and life expectancy are shown for context, not graded.
L'Houmeau has 3 family doctors. Life expectancy at birth in Charente-Maritime is 85.5 years for women and 79.6 for men (2025), against 85.9 and 80.3 across France. From 2016 to 2025, 424 residents of L'Houmeau died, against 430 expected from France’s death rates at each age: 1% fewer.
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 · This figure includes a care-home adjustment that TownRatings models; no official statistic exists.
Primary schools aren’t graded: France doesn’t publish their results by school.
Vocational results within 5 km: 82% passed the bac pro, of 122 candidates at 2 lycées. At the lycées within 5 km of L'Houmeau, 94.9% passed the bac, close to Charente-Maritime’s towns (93.8%) and above compared French towns (92.9%). Collège pupils travel 1.5 mi to the nearest one.
| School | Level | Candidates | Passed, 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collège Jean GuitonNearest collègeCollège | Collège | 233 | 97%+2 pts |
| Lycée polyvalent Léonce VieljeuxNearest lycéeGeneral lycée | General lycée | 367 | 97%−1 pt |
| Collège Pierre Mendès FranceBest against expectations: 13 points above the expected rateCollège | Collège | 98 | 79%+13 pts |
Ministry of Education (DEPP) · brevet and bac 2025, value added (IVAC, IVAL) · Licence Ouverte
Per 1,000 residents a year, there were 2 cases of violence against people and 9.2 graded property crimes (2023–2025 average). Police and gendarmerie figures for L'Houmeau show 24 offenses in 2025. The commonest graded crime locally 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 · When family violence, other physical violence, sexual violence and vehicle theft number five or fewer in a recent year, the figure is withheld, and the index uses the département’s average instead (25.3% of the index here). The count covers the offense categories the Safety Grade uses.
Museums, heritage and other places to visit in and near L'Houmeau. Best known first.
MuseumMusée d'Orbigny Bernon4.1 km southeast, in La Rochelle
MuseumMusée des Beaux-Arts de La Rochelle4.2 km southeast, in La Rochelle
AquariumAquarium de La Rochelle5 km southeast, in La Rochelle
MuseumMuséum d'Histoire naturelle de La Rochelle4 km southeast, in La Rochelle
AttractionTour de la Chaîne4.6 km southeast, in La RochellePhotos from Wikimedia Commons, each under its own licence (our copy, resized).
Wikidata has nobody with a French article born in L'Houmeau yet.
Commune in Charente-Maritime, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
L'Houmeau is a commune of 3,000 people in the Communauté d'agglomération de La Rochelle. 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
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| L'Houmeau | 3,000 | — | — | D | — | B+ |
| Nieul-sur-Mer | 5,811 | 1.4 | A | D | A+ | A |
| Lagord | 7,802 | 1.6 | B+ | D | B− | B |
| La Rochelle | 79,851 | 2.4 | C− | D | D | B |
| Puilboreau | 6,765 | 3.4 | C | D | C− | D |
| Marsilly | 3,176 | 3.7 | — | D | — | A+ |
| Saint-Xandre | 5,677 | 4.2 | B+ | D | A+ | B+ |
People: INSEE, census 2023. Miles: center to center.
L'Houmeau has no Safety Grade: over a quarter of its index would rest on the département’s average. In 2025 police and gendarmerie recorded 7 burglaries and 10 acts of criminal damage.
They grade B, better than 56% of compared French towns and #26 of 44 in Charente-Maritime. 97% of 367 candidates passed the bac at Lycée polyvalent Léonce Vieljeux in 2025, a point below 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 L'Houmeau grades D for cost of living.
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 November 4, 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.