#1Augustin Chantrel
1908–1956French footballer (1906-1956)
Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most widely known is Augustin Chantrel, the French footballer, with articles in 18 languages. The next two names are Pierre Lefort and Roland Malet. Only 10 of the 149 towns in Somme with anyone on record list more. More are athletes than anything else, 2 in all.
Counted by languages, Augustin Chantrel is ahead of Pierre Lefort and Roland Malet: 18, 3 and 3.
#1French footballer (1906-1956)
#2French physician
French actor (1923-2004)
Count by decade and the 1900s come out on top, with 1 births.
Each dot is a person, stacked by the decade they were born.
2 of them work in Sports, the biggest field.
The usual town: the share across everyone listed in French towns. Tap a field to see its people.
2 more, from 1878 to 1944.
No one matches both filters.
Eu has the longest list next door: 5.
Augustin Chantrel (French footballer (1906-1956)) is the best known by our measure: 18 Wikipedia and sister-site articles in different languages. Next come Pierre Lefort and Roland Malet.
5 people born in Mers-les-Bains have a French Wikipedia article that confirms the town as their birthplace (and an English one that agrees, when there is one). Wikidata places 8 people here; the rest aren’t listed because an article names somewhere else or no town, or a check couldn’t be completed.
Among its famous people, athletes: 2 of the 5. That is 40% of the town’s list, against 19% across French towns.
Pierre Lefort, born in 1767. The youngest on the list was born in 1944.
People whose Wikidata birthplace is Mers-les-Bains itself, matched by its INSEE code (a commune merged into it counts when the dates allow), whose French Wikipedia article agrees, and their English article too when they have one. A hospital or neighbourhood recorded without its commune isn’t matched. People who only lived here, adult performers and people known mainly for crimes aren’t listed.
Their Wikidata birthplace may be a hospital, a neighbourhood or a wider area, another commune, or missing, or their articles may not name a birthplace. We only list people the sources agree on; editing Wikidata or Wikipedia changes this page at the next refresh.
From Wikidata (CC0: birthplaces, descriptions, years, occupations, how many Wikipedia and sister-site articles cover each person) and French and English Wikipedia (each person’s articles confirm the birthplace; linked, not quoted). Birthplaces are matched to the commune by INSEE code and its history of mergers (INSEE COG 2026). Ranked by the number of articles. Fields are read from Wikidata’s description and occupations. “The usual town”: everyone listed across French towns. Portraits: each person’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the license below (our copy, resized).
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.