Flats make up 1.5% in Brethenay, less than in 99% of compared French towns
Households without a car: 5.2% here and 11% in the typical compared French town. The 2023 Census put Brethenay’s population at 399, in 180 households. In Brethenay, a quarter of households are headed by a manual worker. Half of the town’s residents are over 49.1, older than in nearly four fifths of compared French towns.
Throughout this page, the Haute-Marne median and the France median are the median of compared communes (those with an overall grade), each figure its own median. Source: INSEE, census 2023.
From 2012 to 2023, Brethenay outgrew 66% of compared French towns: +9%
Residents at INSEE’s last three censuses, each recast in the 2026 commune boundaries. France has no yearly estimate by commune between censuses.
2012 to 2023
2017 to 2023
From 2012 to 2017 the change was +1%; from 2017 to 2023, +8%. Over the same years the median compared French town changed +5%, the median Haute-Marne town −9%.
Brethenay sits below 96% of compared French towns for residents aged 15 to 24 (7.2%)
Shares of residents by age at the 2023 census.
Age groups · share of residents
Median age of the 3,798 compared French towns
■ Brethenay 49.1. The median compared French town: 44.
In the typical compared French town, the share of residents aged 65 and over is 22%; Brethenay has 27%. By way of comparison, 11% of residents are 15 to 24 in the typical compared French town.
Women and men · all residents
50% women, 50% men
About an even split. Median share of women: Haute-Marne 52.0%, France 51.8%.
Brethenay sits below 99% of compared French towns for single-parent households (2.7%)
A household is everyone who shares a main home (résidence principale). Household types come from INSEE’s fuller sample of a quarter of census forms.
Against the Haute-Marne median and the France median
Living alone · share
The average household has 2.2 people. The usual figure: 10% of households are single parents in the typical compared French town. Few places have so few one-person households: 26% here, fewer than in 91% of compared French towns. Couples with children make up 28%, against 25% in the typical compared French town.
98% of homes are houses
Every home the census counted: main residences, second homes and occasional dwellings (INSEE counts them together), and empty homes. Owning and renting are on Cost of living.
All homes · share of homes
Type of home
Cars per household · share of households
Newcomers of less than two years account for 3.7% of households, residents of 30 years or more for 36%. Households in social housing are rarer here than in 99% of compared French towns. Car-free households: one in 19, where the median compared French town has 11%.
At the median, €27,660 a year to live on
The standard of living (niveau de vie) is a household’s disposable income after taxes and benefits, divided by its consumption units (UC) to allow for its size and make-up: 1 for the first adult, 0.5 for each other person 14 or older, 0.3 for each child under 14.
Medians of compared communes. Source: INSEE, Filosofi 2023.
Half of residents live in households above €27,660 a year per consumption unit and half below; the level is higher than in 67% of compared French towns.
Below 86% of compared French towns: 24% of households are headed by a retired person
Households by the socio-professional group (PCS) of their reference person, INSEE’s own categories. Jobs and commuting are on the Work & commute page.
Households by reference person’s group · share of households
Set against 9.4% in the typical compared French town, just over one in ten households are headed by a manager or professional in Brethenay. The comparison figure for households headed by a retired person is 32% in the typical compared French town.
Each household is counted once, by the occupation of its reference person (usually the oldest working adult).
A smaller share of foreign nationals than 91% of compared French towns: 1.2%
INSEE publishes two measures, which overlap but aren’t the same. Neither is the UK’s “born abroad”.
Share of residents · census 2023
Immigrant (immigré)
Born abroad, not French at birth. Someone stays an immigrant after becoming French. A French citizen born abroad (for example in Algeria before 1962) is not one.
Foreign national (étranger)
Not a French citizen today, wherever born. A child born in France to foreign parents can be a foreign national without being an immigrant.
Against a figure of 6.5% in the typical compared French town, the share of immigrants in Brethenay comes in at 3.4%. As a yardstick, 4.3% of residents are foreign nationals in the typical compared French town. That is lower than in nearly four fifths of compared French towns; the median compared commune in Haute-Marne has 7.8%.
INSEE publishes no country of birth or ethnicity by commune in these tables, and the census doesn’t ask about religion.
Single residents: 17%, a lower share than 99% of compared French towns
Residents 15 and over by how they live: the census asks both the legal status and whether people live as a couple.
Residents 15 and over · share
The figure for married residents is 52% in Brethenay and 43% in the typical compared French town. For comparison, 25% of residents 15 and over are single in the typical compared French town.
Brethenay sits below 73% of compared French towns for adults with no qualification (15%)
Highest diploma of residents 15 and over who have left education, in French terms: the levels don’t map one-to-one to UK or U.S. ones.
Highest diploma · 15 and over, out of education
Graduates of higher education: 25% here and 30% in the typical compared French town. Set beside that, nearly a fifth of adults out of school have no qualification in the typical compared French town.
41 French towns of 399 to 2,582 people: this is the 15th oldest
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population, by median age. Hover for each one’s second homes and immigrants; click for its page.
At the ends of the range sit Villejust (37.2), the youngest, and Prayssac (62.3), the oldest.
Brethenay is younger than 1 of its 2 nearest neighbors
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by median age. Source: INSEE, census 2023.
Health, work, housing and schools
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Census 2023. INSEE’s census is a rolling survey: a fifth of small communes each year, 8% of homes in large ones each year. “2023” pools the surveys of 2021 to 2025, so the figures describe the town around 2023, not on one day.
- Medians of compared communes. The comparisons are the median of the département’s compared communes and of France’s (those with an overall grade), each figure its own median: not the total for the département or for France, which large cities pull towards their own figures.
- Immigrants and foreign nationals. INSEE’s two measures: an immigrant was born abroad without French nationality; a foreign national isn’t French today. Neither is a count of people born abroad, which INSEE doesn’t publish by commune.
- Second homes. Homes used for holidays or weekends, with occasional dwellings (kept for work, for example), which INSEE counts together. Their owners are counted where they live, not here.
- Standard of living. INSEE’s Filosofi: disposable income per consumption unit, from tax and benefit files, 2023. The poverty rate is the share of residents below 60% of France’s median. Not published for the smallest communes.
- What France doesn’t ask. The French census asks nothing about ethnicity, religion, language or health, so this page has no such section.
Questions about who lives in Brethenay
What is the population of Brethenay?
399 at INSEE’s 2023 census, 9% more than in 2012 (366).
How old are Brethenay’s residents?
The median age is 49.1, older than 79% of compared French towns. 20% are under 18 and 27% 65 or older.
How many second homes are there in Brethenay?
4, with occasional dwellings: 2.1% of all homes, against 2.1% for the median compared French town.
How many immigrants live in Brethenay?
INSEE counts 14 immigrants (born abroad, not French at birth), 3.4% of residents, and 5 foreign nationals (1.2%). The medians of compared French towns are 6.5% and 4.3%.
What is the median income in Brethenay?
€27,660 a year per consumption unit in 2023 (median of compared French towns €25,970). Source: INSEE, Filosofi.
Sources: INSEE, census 2023 (population, ages, households, homes, marital status, diplomas, immigrants, foreign nationals, employment), 2026 geography · INSEE, Filosofi 2023 (standard of living, poverty) · IGN Admin Express (boundaries) · Medians and percentiles: TownRatings, over compared French towns, updated November 9, 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.