Seine-Saint-Denis (French pronunciation: [sɛn sɛ̃ d(ə)ni] ) is a department of France located in the Grand Paris metropolis in the Île-de-France region. In French, it is often referred to colloquially as quatre-vingt-treize or neuf trois ("ninety-three" or "nine three"), after its official administrative number, 93. Its prefecture is Bobigny.
In 2023, it had a population of 1,704,316 across 39 communes.
Contents
Geography
Principal towns
The most populous commune is Saint-Denis; the prefecture Bobigny is the ninth-most populous. As of 2023, there are 6 communes with more than 70,000 inhabitants:
Administration
Seine-Saint-Denis is made up of three departmental arrondissements and 39 communes:
History
In 2017, Seine-Saint-Denis was the location of 18% of all drug offences in metropolitan France. In 2018, the department had the highest crime rate in metropolitan France. When two suspects (known criminals from the department) were arrested in the 2025 Louvre robbery it was noted by The Guardian to have the highest poverty and crime rate in mainland France.
Demographics
In 2018, the poverty rate was twice the national average at 28%, the unemployment rate was 3% above the national average, at 12.7%. In 2018, it was estimated that 8–20% of the population in the department were illegal immigrants.
Population development since 1881:
Education
An education study confirmed falling levels of literacy in the area, where the percentage of pupils who had 25 errors or more increased from 5.4% in 1987 to 19.8% in 2015.