Database of Companies in France: Top Industries and Biggest Players

Based on our latest records (as of April 2022), more than 10.5M companies are registered in France. More than half of all companies operate in the services sector (36.26%) and finance, insurance, and real estate (28.4%). Paris is at the top of the list among cities with 7.5% of all companies registered there, followed by Marseille (1.5%), and Lyon (1%).

Browse through all businesses registered in France and filter them by name, address, identification number, contact details, industry, SIC Code, sales, or even the number of employees with HitHorizons Screener and HitHorizons API.

The ratio of proprietorships and corporations is balanced

Out of all companies registered in France, 43.1% are registered as proprietorships and 42.4% as corporations.

France: Distribution of companies by legal form

Legal form Share
Proprietorship 43.12%
Corporation 42.44%
Non Profit Organization 9.72%
Cooperative 2.04%
Partnership Of Unknown Type 1.38%
Local Government Body 0.85%
Unknown Type 0.3%
Government Body 0.07%
Joint Venture 0.06%

Almost half of corporations operate in finance, insurance, and real estate (49.3%), and 18.6% operate in services. Services are the most represented industry among proprietorships (41.4%).

France: Distribution of corporations and proprietorships by industry

Industries
Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate 2,220,686 517,074
Services 838,873 1,892,947
Retail Trade 496,937 659,062
Construction 308,866 363,887
Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing 202,962 538,761
Wholesale Trade 143,862 108,788
Manufacturing 127,991 165,502
Transportation, Communications, Electric, Gas, and Sanitary Services 123,825 313,398
Unknown industry 30,449 6,963
Mining 1,354 707
Public Sector 165 52

The most common SIC Code among corporations is real property lessor followed by holding companies. In the case of proprietorships, real property lessor is at the top of the list followed by health practitioners' offices.

France: Distribution of corporations and proprietorships by SIC Code

Corporations
Real property lessor 1,806,592
Holding company 175,208
Eating place 150,745
Management consulting services 126,575
Business services 124,235
Real estate agent/manager 85,651
Ret new/used automobiles 69,246
Legal services office 68,830
Trade contractor 67,475
Custom computer programming 64,769
Proprietorships
Real property lessor 419,143
Health practitioner's office 317,269
U.S. Postal Service 206,504
Direct retail sales 191,124
Commercial art/graphic design 150,434
Business services 143,666
School/educational services 132,177
Management consulting services 125,947
Misc personal services 111,102
Medical doctor's office 110,755

36.3% of companies registered in France operate in services. Second is the finance, insurance, and real estate sector (28.4%), followed by retail (11.1%). According to our latest records (as of April 2022), services generate more than EUR 975B in sales per year - that represents 19.2% of all sales generated by French businesses. Manufacturing companies, while accounting for only 2.8% of all companies registered in France, generate more than 17% of all sales.

France: Distribution of companies by industry

Industry Number of Companies
Services 3,840,927
Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate 3,011,466
Retail Trade 1,179,841
Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing 780,574
Construction 686,852
Transportation, Communications, Electric, Gas, and Sanitary Services 448,228
Manufacturing 300,713
Wholesale Trade 255,747
Public Sector 48,405
Mining 2,134

France: Distribution of sales by industry

Industry Sales
Services € 975.3B
Wholesale Trade € 863.6B
Manufacturing € 862.0B
Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate € 690.0B
Retail Trade € 656.9B
Transportation, Communications, Electric, Gas, and Sanitary Services € 451.4B
Construction € 263.4B
Public Sector € 199.0B
Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing € 98.37B
Mining € 12.40B

More than a fifth of all companies in France operate under the real property lessors SIC Code (21.9%). This unusually large share can be explained by the fact that by French law, anyone who rents out furnished property has to register and formally operate as a business. In France, more than 35% of the property is rented. Out of the 2.3M entities under this SIC Code, 1.98M entities generate less than EUR 100,000 a year.

The second most represented SIC Code is a membership organisation with a share of 4.8%. Entertainment and recreation services are third with a share of 3.8%. 47.7% of all companies in France operate under the top ten SIC Codes.

France: Distribution of companies by SIC Code

SIC Code Number of Companies
Real property lessor 2,317,931
Membership organization 507,672
Amusement/recreation services 403,197
Health practitioner's office 330,539
Real estate agent/manager 313,036
Business services 283,742
Management consulting services 256,033
Eating place 238,381
U.S. Postal Service 207,581
Direct retail sales 195,829
School/educational services 187,607
Holding company 179,615
Commercial art/graphic design 159,936
Trade contractor 151,581
Beauty shop 149,500
Cash grains farm 149,254
Legal services office 146,496
Ret misc merchandise 139,872
Ret new/used automobiles 134,458
Misc personal services 130,089

Paris has the highest number of registered companies

789,000 companies are registered in the Paris department, representing 7.45% of all companies in France. Bouches-du-Rhône is second with a share of 3.63%. Rhône is third with a share of 3.03%. Hauts-De-Seine is a clear leader in terms of sales. According to our latest records (as of April 2022), companies registered there generate more than EUR 721B per year (14.21% share). Paris-based companies are second with sales of more than EUR 690B (13.61%), but employ almost twice as many people (2.7M) compared to Hauts-De-Seine (1.5M).

France: Sales and number of employees in individual departments

Department Sales Number of Employees
PARIS € 690,232,775,944 2,798,375
BOUCHES DU RHONE € 139,618,839,056 870,659
RHONE € 173,545,530,155 925,030
NORD € 186,543,568,451 851,329
GIRONDE € 94,673,249,348 647,241
HAUTS DE SEINE € 721,006,440,969 1,520,187
ALPES MARITIMES € 59,832,021,296 504,684
HERAULT € 61,744,041,705 471,601
SEINE SAINT DENIS € 164,181,006,180 713,622
VAR € 45,744,700,662 400,055
HAUTE GARONNE € 126,197,354,170 550,559
VAL DE MARNE € 139,429,689,854 506,681
LOIRE ATLANTIQUE € 88,075,609,917 507,177
YVELINES € 204,924,632,280 547,024
ISERE € 68,670,503,616 441,973
Top 15 € 2,964,419,963,603 4,418,509
Total € 5,072,532,078,293 10,592,852

The city of Paris is home to 788,000 companies (7.4%). The second city with the most registered entities is Marseille with more than 163,000 companies (1.5%) followed by Lyon with 110,000 companies (1%).

France: TOP 10 cities with the highest number of companies registered

City Number of Companies
PARIS 788,766
MARSEILLE 163,254
LYON 110,822
TOULOUSE 91,990
NICE 89,943
BORDEAUX 70,694
MONTPELLIER 64,827
NANTES 56,661
STRASBOURG 51,273
LILLE 48,497
Other 8,894,562

Manufacturing companies are some of the largest companies in France. According to our latest records (as of April 2022), PSA AUTOMOBILES SA is the dominant carmaker with annual sales of EUR 50.1B (the company merged with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles on 16/01/2021 to form Stellantis). The French electricity producer and distributor ELECTRICITE DE FRANCE is second with sales of more than EUR 44B. The aircraft manufacturer AIRBUS is third with annual sales of more than EUR 39B.

France: TOP 15 companies in terms of sales

Company Sales Share
PSA AUTOMOBILES SA € 50,192,306,000 0.99%
ELECTRICITE DE FRANCE € 44,315,000,000 0.87%
AIRBUS € 39,036,834,000 0.77%
RENAULT SAS € 37,715,000,000 0.74%
ORANGE € 22,604,931,633 0.45%
CSF € 22,019,809,170 0.43%
CONTANGO TRADING SA € 20,114,270,580 0.4%
ENGIE € 19,272,000,000 0.38%
RENAULT € 18,026,160,663 0.36%
CMA CGM € 17,972,700,000 0.35%
SOCIETE CIVILE DES MOUSQUETAIRES € 17,761,141,455 0.35%
TOTALENERGIES MARKETING FRANCE € 16,942,209,000 0.33%
ITM ALIMENTAIRE INTERNATIONAL € 16,676,966,419 0.33%
LA FRANCAISE DES JEUX € 15,940,400,000 0.31%
ENEDIS € 14,494,000,000 0.29%
Top 15 largest companies € 373,083,728,920 7.35%
Total € 5,072,532,078,293 100%

The consulting company CAPGEMINI is the largest employer in France with more than 212,000 employees. RENAULT, a major car manufacturer, is second with more than 117,000 employees. SOCIETE CIVILE DES MOUSQUETAIRES is third with more than 112,000 employees.

France: TOP 15 employers

Company Number of Employees Share
CAPGEMINI 212,000 0.81%
RENAULT 117,405 0.45%
SOCIETE CIVILE DES MOUSQUETAIRES 112,002 0.43%
ADECCO FRANCE 95,288 0.37%
SNCF VOYAGEURS 66,766 0.26%
ORANGE 64,411 0.25%
ELECTRICITE DE FRANCE 62,462 0.24%
CENTRE COMMUNAL D'ACTION SOCIALE 37,496 0.14%
ONET SERVICES 35,801 0.14%
SYNERGIE 32,682 0.13%
SCE DEPARTEMENTAL INCENDIE ET SECOURS 28,270 0.11%
CRIT 24,448 0.09%
B.A.G. 22,310 0.09%
RENT YOUR CAR 21,456 0.08%
CAPGEMINI TECHNOLOGY SERVICES 20,038 0.08%
Top 15 largest companies 952,835 3.65%
All employees 26,100,201 100%

Add data on more than 10.5M France-based companies and 80M+ European businesses to any software.

Browse through all France-based companies and filter them by name, address, identification number, contact details, industry, SIC Code, sales, or even the number of employees with HitHorizons Screener and HitHorizons API.

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