Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Home to 9,843 people, this town lies in Loire, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
Roche-la-Molière does especially well on schools (B+): bac results 1.8 points above the expected rate; brevet results 2.1 points above the expected rate. With an A− overall, Roche-la-Molière is better than 77% of compared French towns. In the ranking it comes #22 of 48 in Loire. Add walkability to its strengths — 65% of residents live within 800 m of a bakery, and 14% of working residents walk, cycle or take public transport to work. Homes are dear: at the median price, a 70 m² home costs 6.2 times the median annual income per consumption unit in the intercommunality. The rest of its grades are middling: B for safety and C+ for jobs & income.
Figures: brevet and bac results, Ministry of Education · amenities, INSEE BPE 2025 · commuting and employment, INSEE census 2023 · prices, DVF · income per consumption unit (an income adjusted for household size), INSEE Filosofi · recorded crime, SSMSI (Ministry of the Interior).
Hazard risk isn’t graded in France yet: national flood maps cover only some areas. The overall grade uses the other six subjects.
Each subject compares Roche-la-Molière 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 →
Roche-la-Molière has 1 historic monument on the Culture ministry’s list, none at the highest level (classé).
The oldest protected part dates from the 14th century; the first monument here was protected in 1985.
Jean Colly, born in 1858, is the one person born in Roche-la-Molière before 1900 that Wikidata records.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Roche-la-Molière.
Roche-la-Molière has 3,650 jobs for 3,950 working residents, 0.9 per worker. 10.4% of the labour force were unemployed, about level with compared French towns (10.1%) and above Loire’s towns (8.6%). Public transport took nearly a tenth 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
Primary schools aren’t graded: France doesn’t publish their results by school.
At the collèges within 5 km of Roche-la-Molière, 87.0% passed the brevet, below Loire’s towns (89.9%) and close to compared French towns (87.5%). General-bac pupils go 3.2 mi to the nearest lycée. School results put the town #17 of 50 in Loire.
| School | Level | Candidates | Passed, 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collège Louis GrünerNearest collègeCollège | Collège | 156 | 95%+2 pts |
| Lycée polyvalent hôtelier le Renouveau PrivateNearest lycéeGeneral lycée | General lycée | 21 | 100% |
| Collège Massenet FourneyronBest against expectations: 7 points above the expected rateCollège | Collège | 89 | 89%+7 pts |
Ministry of Education (DEPP) · brevet and bac 2025, value added (IVAC, IVAL) · Licence Ouverte
Care access and life expectancy are shown for context, not graded.
5 GPs practise in Roche-la-Molière. Its care home for older people (82 places) counts its residents as Roche-la-Molière’s; allowing for it, deaths were 19% below expected. 835 deaths locally between 2016 and 2025, where France’s rates at each age predict 942: 11% below. Average lifespans in Loire: 85.6 years for women, 80.8 for men (2025), against 85.9 and 80.3 nationally.
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 · The care-home adjustment is a TownRatings modeling step, not an official statistic.
Rents are the ministry’s estimates of advertised rents, not rents actually paid.
Apartments in Roche-la-Molière sell for €1,759/m², houses for €2,449/m². The estimated advertised rent is €10.77/m² a month, higher than Loire’s towns (€10.17/m²) yet lower than compared French towns (€12.41/m²). For a house, the estimated advertised rent is €10.37/m² a month.
| By type | Median per m² | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Houses | €2,449/m² | 166 |
| Apartments | €1,759/m² | 129 |
Source: DGFiP, DVF property sales (Etalab geolocated); Housing Ministry, Carte des loyers 2025; INSEE, Filosofi 2023 · Licence Ouverte
People 65 and over make up a quarter of the town, about level with Loire’s towns (25%) and above compared French towns (22%). Just over a quarter of adults hold a degree. The 15-to-24 age group makes up 11% of residents.
52% women, 48% men
About 93 men for every 100 women. Median share of women: Loire 52.0%, France 51.8%.
| Roche-la-Molière | Loire median | France median | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 16% | 17% | 17% |
| 15–24 | 11% | 11% | 11% |
| 25–44 | 21% | 22% | 23% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 26% | 26% |
| 65+ | 25% | 25% | 22% |
| No diploma | 18% | 20% | 19% |
| CAP or BEP | 32% | 29% | 26% |
| Baccalauréat | 19% | 18% | 18% |
| Higher education | 26% | 28% | 30% |
INSEE, census 2023 · Loire median and France median: the median of compared communes
France has no History Grade yet: this card describes, it doesn’t grade.
The oldest protected building goes back to the 14th century. Homes built before 1919 account for nearly a tenth of the housing.
Ministère de la Culture, Mérimée (Licence Ouverte 2.0) · INSEE, census 2023, homes by build period
Per 1,000 residents a year, there were 3.8 cases of violence against people and 15.6 graded property crimes (2023–2025 average). For 2025, the figures show 183 offenses in Roche-la-Molière. The graded crime recorded most 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 · For sexual violence and armed robbery, 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, 1.4% of the index here. The count covers the offense categories the Safety Grade uses.
Museums and heritage in and near Roche-la-Molière. Best known first.
MuseumCouriot - Musée de la Mine4.5 km east, in Saint-ÉtienneChâteauChâteauChâteau de la Roarein townArt galleryArt gallerySalle d'expositionin townMuseumMuseumMusée des pompiers de Firminy4.5 km southwest, in FirminyMuseumMuseumExplora4.4 km east, in Saint-ÉtiennePhotos from Wikimedia Commons, each under its own licence (our copy, resized).
Roche-la-Molière has one historic monument; beside it, the nearest classé monuments in other towns, within 15.5 mi.
6 notable people were born in Roche-la-Molière.
Alexandra Louison: Kagaoua, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jean Colly: Agence de presse Meurisse, Public domain · Jean Pierre Vallat: Mouardouz, CC BY-SA 4.0
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roche-la-Molière | 9,843 | — | A− | C+ | B | B+ |
| Saint-Genest-Lerpt | 6,181 | 1.6 | B+ | B− | B− | B |
| Le Chambon-Feugerolles | 12,314 | 2.5 | C+ | A− | C− | C |
| La Ricamarie | 8,039 | 2.9 | B+ | A | D | A− |
| Unieux | 8,514 | 3 | B | B | C+ | A |
| Villars | 7,664 | 3.1 | A | B+ | C | A |
| Firminy | 17,060 | 3.4 | B− | A | D | B |
People: INSEE, census 2023. Miles: center to center.
It grades B for safety, #24 of 48 in Loire. In 2025 police and gendarmerie recorded 42 burglaries and 74 acts of criminal damage.
They grade B+, better than 74% of compared French towns and #17 of 50 in Loire. 100% of 21 candidates passed the bac at Lycée polyvalent hôtelier le Renouveau in 2025 given its pupils’ backgrounds. Primary schools aren’t graded: France doesn’t publish their results by school.
Incomes are lower than in most compared French towns too, so Roche-la-Molière grades C+ for cost of living.
Commune in Loire, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Roche-la-Molière is a commune of 9,843 people in the Saint-Etienne 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) · 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.