Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Population 4,978: a town in Nord, Hauts-de-France.
Plenty to like here, at a price. With a B+ overall, Bousbecque is better than 69% of compared French towns and ranks #22 of 189 in Nord. It does especially well on jobs & income (A−): 0.7 jobs per working resident; 7.6% unemployment. What counts against it is cost of living — at the median price, a 70 m² home costs 7.6 times the median annual income per consumption unit in the intercommunality. Elsewhere it is close to typical: B− for schools and B for health.
Figures: employment, INSEE census 2023 · prices, DVF · income per consumption unit (an income adjusted for household size), INSEE Filosofi · brevet and bac results, Ministry of Education · deaths, INSEE (by commune of residence, 2016–2025).
Hazard risk isn’t graded in France yet: national flood maps cover only some areas. The overall grade uses the other six subjects.
The one thing Bousbecque does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compares Bousbecque 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 no building in Bousbecque as a monument historique. That’s true of 25% of compared French towns too.
The nearest classé monument is Église Saint-Chrysole, in Comines, 3 mi away.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Bousbecque.
Rents are the ministry’s estimates of advertised rents, not rents actually paid.
Houses made up 87% of the homes sold; apartments the rest. A house rents for an estimated €10.28/m² a month. The estimated advertised rent is €12.87/m² a month, about level with compared French towns (€12.41/m²) and above Nord’s towns (€11.81/m²).
| By type | Median per m² | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Houses | €2,596/m² | 137 |
Source: DGFiP, DVF property sales (Etalab geolocated); Housing Ministry, Carte des loyers 2025; INSEE, Filosofi 2023 · Licence Ouverte
Half of residents lived on more than €27,810 a year per consumption unit, higher than both Nord’s towns (€23,900) and compared French towns (€25,970). At the census, 4.7% of working residents in Bousbecque went to work by public transport.
Source: INSEE, census 2023 (commuting, employment, jobs at place of work); INSEE, Filosofi 2023 · Licence Ouverte
Violence against people averaged 4.8 per 1,000 residents a year over 2023–2025; graded property crimes averaged 11.8. Police and gendarmerie figures for Bousbecque show 82 offenses in 2025. Criminal damage topped the graded crimes in Bousbecque (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 sexual violence and armed robbery number five or fewer in a recent year, the figure is withheld, and the index uses the département’s average instead (5.5% of the index here). The count covers the offense categories the Safety Grade uses.
Children under 15 count for 19% of the people here. Degrees are held by 31% of adults, higher than Nord’s towns (26%) and near compared French towns (30%). Young adults of 15 to 24 are just over a tenth of the population.
51% women, 49% men
About 95 men for every 100 women. Median share of women: Nord 51.9%, France 51.8%.
| Bousbecque | Nord median | France median | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 19% | 19% | 17% |
| 15–24 | 11% | 12% | 11% |
| 25–44 | 24% | 24% | 23% |
| 45–64 | 28% | 25% | 26% |
| 65+ | 18% | 19% | 22% |
| No diploma | 20% | 23% | 19% |
| CAP or BEP | 25% | 26% | 26% |
| Baccalauréat | 18% | 18% | 18% |
| Higher education | 31% | 26% | 30% |
INSEE, census 2023 · Nord median and France median: the median of compared communes
Care access and life expectancy are shown for context, not graded.
Average lifespans in Nord: 84.5 years for women, 78.8 for men (2025), against 85.9 and 80.3 nationally. 350 deaths in Bousbecque between 2016 and 2025, where France’s rates at each age predict 370: 5% below. This Nord town has 4 family doctors.
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.
Primary schools aren’t graded: France doesn’t publish their results by school.
The bac pass rate near Bousbecque is 78.0%, below both Nord’s towns (90.4%) and compared French towns (92.9%). General-bac pupils go 3.7 mi to the nearest lycée. The town’s pupils have a collège 2 mi away.
| School | Level | Candidates | Passed, 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collège Sainte-Marie PrivateNearest collègeCollège | Collège | 136 | 99%+3 pts |
| Lycée professionnel Antoine de Saint-ExupéryNearest lycéeVocational lycée | Vocational lycée | 59 | 78%−1 pt |
| Collège Henri MatisseBest against expectations: 8 points above the expected rateCollège | Collège | 79 | 99%+8 pts |
Ministry of Education (DEPP) · brevet and bac 2025, value added (IVAC, IVAL) · Licence Ouverte
Gardens, other places to visit and museums in and near Bousbecque. Best known first.
Nothing in Bousbecque is on the monuments historiques list. These are the nearest classé monuments, within 15.5 mi.
2 notable people were born in Bousbecque.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bousbecque | 4,978 | — | B+ | C− | B+ | B |
| Wervicq-Sud | 5,426 | 1.1 | B− | C− | B+ | A− |
| Linselles | 8,161 | 2.1 | A− | D | B | B |
| Halluin | 20,715 | 2.3 | C− | C | C | B− |
| Roncq | 14,075 | 2.5 | C+ | D | C− | C |
| Comines | 12,731 | 3 | C | C− | B− | C− |
| Neuville-en-Ferrain | 10,002 | 4 | B− | C− | C− | B |
People: INSEE, census 2023. Miles: center to center.
It grades B+ for safety, #30 of 189 in Nord. In 2025 police and gendarmerie recorded 14 burglaries and 21 acts of criminal damage.
They grade B−, better than 47% of compared French towns and #114 of 195 in Nord. Primary schools aren’t graded: France doesn’t publish their results by school.
Incomes are higher than in most compared French towns, so Bousbecque grades C− for cost of living.
Commune in Nord, Hauts-de-France
Bousbecque is a commune of 4,978 people in the Métropole Européenne de Lille. 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.