Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Home to 2,311 people, this town lies in Vendée, Pays de la Loire.
Saint-Étienne-du-Bois’s strongest is schools: brevet results 8 points above the expected rate. Cost of living is another plus (B+) — at the median price, a 70 m² home costs 5.1 times the median annual income per consumption unit in the intercommunality. Jobs and pay trail most towns: 0.3 jobs per working resident; 6.8% unemployment. Most journeys need a car: 48% of residents live within 800 m of a bakery, and 5% of working residents walk, cycle or take public transport to work.
Figures: brevet and bac results, Ministry of Education · prices, DVF · income per consumption unit (an income adjusted for household size), INSEE Filosofi · employment and commuting, INSEE census 2023 · amenities, INSEE BPE 2025. Saint-Étienne-du-Bois has subject grades but no overall grade: French towns get one from 2,500 residents.
Hazard risk isn’t graded in France yet: national flood maps cover only some areas.
The one thing Saint-Étienne-du-Bois does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compares Saint-Étienne-du-Bois 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.
Saint-Étienne-du-Bois has subject grades but no overall grade: French towns get one from 2,500 residents.
How TownRatings grades French towns →
The Culture ministry lists no building in Saint-Étienne-du-Bois as a monument historique. That’s true of 25% of compared French towns too.
The nearest classé monument is Mégalithe dit La Pierre-des-Farfadets, in Le Poiré-sur-Vie, 4.1 mi away.
22% of its homes were built before 1919, against 7.4% in the median compared French town.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Saint-Étienne-du-Bois.
Primary schools aren’t graded: France doesn’t publish their results by school.
No general lycée lies within 5 km; the nearest is 5.7 mi away. For collège, the closest is 2.7 mi away.
| School | Level | Candidates | Passed, 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collège Saint-Paul PrivateNearest collègeCollège | Collège | 91 | 98%+8 pts |
Ministry of Education (DEPP) · brevet and bac 2025, value added (IVAC, IVAL) · Licence Ouverte
The unemployment rate comes to 6.8%. 5.0% of Saint-Étienne-du-Bois’ working residents walked, cycled or took public transport to work in the 2023 census, against 13% for the median of compared French towns; 89% drove.
Source: INSEE, census 2023 (commuting, employment, jobs at place of work); INSEE, Filosofi 2023 · Licence Ouverte
Rents are the ministry’s estimates of advertised rents, not rents actually paid.
The median sale price was €1,894/m², below both Vendée’s towns (€2,339/m²) and compared French towns (€2,430/m²). Sales in Saint-Étienne-du-Bois from July 2023 to June 2026: 80 houses and apartments.
| By type | Median per m² | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Houses | €1,894/m² | 80 |
Source: DGFiP, DVF property sales (Etalab geolocated); Housing Ministry, Carte des loyers 2025; INSEE, Filosofi 2023 · Licence Ouverte
18% of residents are 65 or over. Graduates make up 26% of adults. The middle age in Saint-Étienne-du-Bois is 40.5.
49% women, 51% men
About 104 men for every 100 women. Median share of women: Vendée 50.9%, France 51.8%.
| Saint-Étienne-du-Bois | Vendée median | France median | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 21% | 16% | 17% |
| 15–24 | 9.9% | 9.9% | 11% |
| 25–44 | 27% | 21% | 23% |
| 45–64 | 24% | 27% | 26% |
| 65+ | 18% | 23% | 22% |
| No diploma | 15% | 19% | 19% |
| CAP or BEP | 32% | 30% | 26% |
| Baccalauréat | 20% | 19% | 18% |
| Higher education | 26% | 26% | 30% |
INSEE, census 2023 · Vendée median and France median: the median of compared communes
Care access and life expectancy are shown for context, not graded.
France’s death rates at each age would predict 263 deaths in Saint-Étienne-du-Bois from 2016 to 2025; there were 352, 34% more. Its two care homes for older people (109 places) count their residents as Saint-Étienne-du-Bois’; allowing for them, deaths were 16% below expected. The nearest emergency department to Saint-Étienne-du-Bois is Centre hospitalier Loire Vendee Ocean site de Challans, 12.9 mi away. Life expectancy at birth in Vendée is 85.5 years for women and 80.2 for men (2025), against 85.9 and 80.3 across France.
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.
On average over 2023–2025, every 1,000 residents saw 4 violent offenses and 8.2 graded property crimes a year. The 2025 count: 17 offenses in Saint-Étienne-du-Bois. Also worth knowing: in 2025, family violence led the graded crimes here.
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 · Small counts of other physical violence, sexual violence, burglary, vehicle theft and theft from vehicles go unpublished (five or fewer in at least one of the last three years); the département’s average stands in, 48.0% of the index here. The count covers the offense categories the Safety Grade uses.
Heritage in and near Saint-Étienne-du-Bois. Best known first.
Nothing in Saint-Étienne-du-Bois is on the monuments historiques list. These are the nearest classé monuments, within 15.5 mi.
Wikidata places 1 person here, but the articles don’t both confirm Saint-Étienne-du-Bois as the birthplace, so nobody is listed.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Étienne-du-Bois | 2,311 | — | — | B+ | — | B |
| Legé Loire-Atlantique | 4,817 | 4 | B | B | B+ | C |
| Les Lucs-sur-Boulogne | 3,701 | 5.1 | — | B | — | B |
| Aizenay | 10,365 | 6.5 | A | C+ | B+ | B+ |
| Le Poiré-sur-Vie | 8,649 | 6.9 | A+ | C+ | A | A− |
| Saint-Christophe-du-Ligneron | 2,727 | 7.6 | — | B | — | A− |
| Rocheservière | 3,594 | 8.2 | A | B | B+ | C+ |
People: INSEE, census 2023. Miles: center to center.
Saint-Étienne-du-Bois has no Safety Grade: over a quarter of its index would rest on the département’s average.
They grade A+, better than 99% of compared French towns. Primary schools aren’t graded: France doesn’t publish their results by school.
Incomes are lower than in most compared French towns too, so Saint-Étienne-du-Bois grades B+ for cost of living.
Commune in Vendée, Pays de la Loire
Saint-Étienne-du-Bois is a commune of 2,311 people in the Communauté de communes de Vie et Boulogne. 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.