Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 1,207 in Doubs, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.
Fontain has subject grades but no overall grade: French towns get one from 2,500 residents. Its weakest subject is walkability (C−): 1% of residents live within 800 m of a bakery, and 7% of working residents walk, cycle or take public transport to work. Its strongest is health (A): after allowing for care homes, deaths from 2016 to 2025 were 33% below expected, against 12% below for the median of compared French towns.
Hazard risk isn’t graded in France yet: national flood maps cover only some areas.
Each subject compares Fontain 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 →
The Culture ministry lists 1 historic monument in Fontain, none of them classé, France’s highest protection.
Heritage, museums and other places to visit in and near Fontain. Best known first.
ChâteauCitadelle de Besançon3.6 km north, in Besançon
MuseumMusée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie de Besançon4.7 km north, in Besançon
MuseumMaison natale de Victor Hugo4.1 km north, in BesançonCathedralCathedralCathédrale Saint-Jean de Besançon4 km north, in BesançonFortFortFort de Planoise3.4 km west, in BesançonPhotos from Wikimedia Commons, each under its own licence (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Fontain.
Care access and life expectancy are shown for context, not graded.
On this, Fontain is below both Doubs’ towns (95) and compared French towns (88). From 2016 to 2025, 75 residents of Fontain died, against 111 expected from France’s death rates at each age: 33% fewer. The care-home adjustment is a TownRatings modeling step, not an official statistic.
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
In the comparison, Fontain comes above both Doubs’ towns (€26,330) and compared French towns (€25,970). 5.5% of the labour force are out of work. Fontain has 200 jobs for 500 working residents, 0.4 per worker.
Source: INSEE, census 2023 (commuting, employment, jobs at place of work); INSEE, Filosofi 2023 · Licence Ouverte
Primary schools aren’t graded: France doesn’t publish their results by school.
92.1% of candidates passed the bac at the lycées within 5 km of Fontain, above Doubs’ towns (87.5%) and close to compared French towns (92.9%).
| School | Level | Candidates | Passed, 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collège Victor HugoNearest collègeCollège | Collège | 232 | 90%−4 pts |
| Lycée général et technologique Victor HugoNearest lycéeGeneral lycée | General lycée | 318 | 94%−2 pts |
| Collège DiderotBest against expectations: 11 points above the expected rateCollège | Collège | 107 | 75%+11 pts |
Ministry of Education (DEPP) · brevet and bac 2025, value added (IVAC, IVAL) · Licence Ouverte
France has no History Grade yet: this card describes, it doesn’t grade.
The Culture ministry lists 1 historic monument in Fontain, none of them classé, France’s highest protection.
Ministère de la Culture, Mérimée (Licence Ouverte 2.0) · INSEE, census 2023, homes by build period
For Fontain, that is above both Doubs’ towns (26%) and compared French towns (30%). Young adults of 15 to 24 are 9.6% of the population.
51% women, 49% men
About 95 men for every 100 women. Median share of women: Doubs 51.3%, France 51.8%.
| Fontain | Doubs median | France median | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 16% | 17% | 17% |
| 15–24 | 9.6% | 11% | 11% |
| 25–44 | 17% | 22% | 23% |
| 45–64 | 32% | 25% | 26% |
| 65+ | 25% | 23% | 22% |
| No diploma | 15% | 23% | 19% |
| CAP or BEP | 25% | 27% | 26% |
| Baccalauréat | 17% | 17% | 18% |
| Higher education | 40% | 26% | 30% |
INSEE, census 2023 · Doubs median and France median: the median of compared communes
Rents are the ministry’s estimates of advertised rents, not rents actually paid.
Too few homes sold here for a reliable median price, so the Cost Grade uses rent alone.
Source: Housing Ministry, Carte des loyers 2025; INSEE, Filosofi 2023 · Licence Ouverte
Police and gendarmerie recorded 0 offenses in the graded categories in Fontain in 2025. For family violence, sexual violence, burglary and criminal damage, this figure isn’t published when it’s small (five or fewer in at least one of the last three years); the index uses the département’s average instead, 100.0% of the index here.
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
Fontain has one historic monument; beside it, the nearest classé monuments in other towns, within 15.5 mi.
Maison-forte médiévale: Photo: JGS25 · CC BY-SA 4.0
One notable person was born in Fontain.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fontain | 1,207 | — | — | B− | — | A |
| Besançon | 118,489 | 3.1 | C | C | C− | B |
| Saône | 3,195 | 4.5 | A | C+ | A | B− |
| École-Valentin | 2,579 | 5.4 | A− | C− | B+ | A+ |
| Thise | 2,994 | 6.2 | — | C | — | B− |
| Miserey-Salines | 2,661 | 6.5 | — | C− | — | A |
| Les Auxons | 2,533 | 7.7 | — | C | — | A− |
People: INSEE, census 2023. Miles: center to center.
Fontain has no Safety Grade: over a quarter of its index would rest on the département’s average. Recorded figures: an average of 2.8 recorded violent incidents and 3.1 recorded burglaries, vehicle thefts, thefts from vehicles and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
They grade C, better than 33% of compared French towns. 94% of 318 candidates passed the bac at Lycée général et technologique Victor Hugo in 2025, 2 points below the expected rate given its pupils’ backgrounds. Primary schools aren’t graded: France doesn’t publish their results by school.
Commune in Doubs, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
Fontain is a commune of 1,207 people in the Communauté urbaine Grand Besançon Métropole. 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) · 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.