Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 2,808 in Sarthe, Pays de la Loire.
Spay has no overall grade because safety isn’t graded here. Its weakest subject is schools (D): bac results 5.2 points below the expected rate; brevet results 1.5 points below the expected rate. At the median price of €2,026/m², a 70 m² home costs 5.3 times the median annual income per consumption unit (an income adjusted for household size) in the Communauté de communes du Val de Sarthe. Its strongest is jobs & income (A+): 1 job per working resident; 5.3% unemployment.
Hazard risk isn’t graded in France yet: national flood maps cover only some areas.
The 2 things Spay does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compares Spay 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.
Spay has no overall grade because safety isn’t graded here.
How TownRatings grades French towns →
The Culture ministry lists no building in Spay as a monument historique. That’s true of 25% of compared French towns too.
The nearest classé monument is Zone contenant des vestiges archéologiques, in Allonnes, 3.2 mi away.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Spay.
Care access and life expectancy are shown for context, not graded.
In Sarthe, life expectancy at birth reaches 85.9 years for women and 79.9 for men (2025), next to 85.9 and 80.3 for France. France’s death rates at each age would predict 234 deaths in Spay from 2016 to 2025; there were 155, 34% fewer. Also worth knowing: there are 2 general practitioners in the town.
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.
At the vocational lycée within 5 km, 67% of 63 candidates passed the bac pro. Its collèges and lycées rank #32 of 34 in Sarthe on results. Near Spay, 86.9% of lycée candidates passed the bac, below both Sarthe’s towns (92.7%) and compared French towns (92.9%).
| School | Level | Candidates | Passed, 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collège Henri LefeuvreNearest collègeCollège | Collège | 99 | 89%+4 pts |
| Lycée André MalrauxNearest lycéeGeneral lycée | General lycée | 244 | 92%−4 pts |
Ministry of Education (DEPP) · brevet and bac 2025, value added (IVAC, IVAL) · Licence Ouverte
Rents are the ministry’s estimates of advertised rents, not rents actually paid.
The median price, €2,026/m², comes from 93 sales of houses and apartments in Spay from July 2023 to June 2026. Advertised rents are estimated at €10.27/m² a month, close to Sarthe’s towns (€9.64/m²) and below compared French towns (€12.41/m²). House rents are put at about €10.72/m² a month.
| By type | Median per m² | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Houses | €2,026/m² | 93 |
Source: DGFiP, DVF property sales (Etalab geolocated); Housing Ministry, Carte des loyers 2025; INSEE, Filosofi 2023 · Licence Ouverte
Degrees are held by 29% of adults. People aged 15 to 24 make up a tenth of the town, about level with Sarthe’s towns (9.9%) and below compared French towns (11%). At 48.8, the median resident of Spay sits in the middle of the age range.
50% women, 50% men
About an even split. Median share of women: Sarthe 51.6%, France 51.8%.
| Spay | Sarthe median | France median | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 17% | 17% | 17% |
| 15–24 | 9.7% | 9.9% | 11% |
| 25–44 | 19% | 20% | 23% |
| 45–64 | 29% | 26% | 26% |
| 65+ | 25% | 26% | 22% |
| No diploma | 17% | 24% | 19% |
| CAP or BEP | 32% | 30% | 26% |
| Baccalauréat | 18% | 16% | 18% |
| Higher education | 29% | 22% | 30% |
INSEE, census 2023 · Sarthe median and France median: the median of compared communes
Half of residents lived on more than €28,110 a year per consumption unit, higher than both Sarthe’s towns (€24,770) and compared French towns (€25,970). 1,250 jobs are based in Spay, for 1,250 working residents (1 per worker). The census found 7.3% of commuters going to work on foot, by bike or by public transport.
Source: INSEE, census 2023 (commuting, employment, jobs at place of work); INSEE, Filosofi 2023 · Licence Ouverte
In 2025, 20 offenses were recorded in Spay. Violence against people ran at 2.2 per 1,000 residents a year and the graded property crimes at 7.8 (2023–2025 average). Of the graded crimes in the town, criminal damage came up most often (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 family violence, other physical violence, sexual violence, vehicle theft and theft from vehicles, 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, 36.7% of the index here. The count covers the offense categories the Safety Grade uses.
Heritage, family days out and other places to visit in and near Spay. Best known first.
Nothing in Spay is on the monuments historiques list. These are the nearest classé monuments, within 15.5 mi.
Wikidata has nobody with a French article born in Spay yet.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spay | 2,808 | — | — | B+ | — | A |
| Arnage | 5,445 | 1.9 | B | B+ | C+ | B+ |
| Moncé-en-Belin | 3,697 | 3 | B+ | B+ | A− | C+ |
| Allonnes | 10,739 | 3 | C | B | C− | C+ |
| Guécélard | 3,202 | 3.1 | — | A− | — | A |
| Roëzé-sur-Sarthe | 2,514 | 4.3 | — | A | — | B+ |
| Mulsanne | 5,244 | 4.7 | A | B | B | B+ |
People: INSEE, census 2023. Miles: center to center.
Spay has no Safety Grade: over a quarter of its index would rest on the département’s average. In 2025 police and gendarmerie recorded 9 burglaries and 11 acts of criminal damage.
They grade D, better than 10% of compared French towns and #32 of 34 in Sarthe. 92% of 244 candidates passed the bac at Lycée André Malraux in 2025, 4 points below the expected rate given its pupils’ backgrounds. Primary schools aren’t graded: France doesn’t publish their results by school.
Homes cost less than in most compared French towns: the median sale price from July 2023 to June 2026 was €2,026/m², against €2,430/m² for the median of compared French towns. Incomes are higher than in most compared French towns, so Spay grades B+ for cost of living.
Commune in Sarthe, Pays de la Loire
Spay is a commune of 2,808 people in the Communauté de communes du Val de Sarthe. 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 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.