Geneva · Pays de Gex · Annemasse Agglo
Two paces.
Three areas.
Between 2017 and 2023, population and housing stock grow at different paces in three neighbouring areas. What does that mean for housing, services and travel?
A common starting point
In proportion, the housing stock grows faster than the population.
Each series starts at 100 in 2017. The distance shows growth, not the size of the area.
● Canton of Geneva
The largest gain in residents.
+24,590 residents · 56.1% of the increase studied.
Worth examining: where to house these residents, and how to connect homes with jobs?
■ Pays de Gex Agglo
The fastest growth.
Population +12.6% · stock +15.7%.
The two highest relative increases. Worth examining: how much comes from converting existing buildings, and how much from urban expansion?
▲ Annemasse Agglo
Growth in between.
Population +8.0% · stock +11.3%.
Rates between those of Geneva and the Pays de Gex. Worth examining: the capacity of transport, schools, utilities and public space.
Urban and architectural reading · CM Design
What kind of city is this growth building?
Build more, but where? Densifying a neighbourhood, converting a building or opening up a new area do not involve the same costs, networks or facilities. These figures do not show which of them dominates here.
At the scale of a single project, the question becomes concrete. These regional volumes say nothing about a given plot: the choice of unit types starts from the intended households, the budget and the location, and density is settled on site — access, overlooking, daylight, and what the existing building allows to be converted.
A design question: in an existing building, can additional flats be created while keeping daylight, suitable access and the neighbours’ privacy?
The first two links lead to CM Design guides, the third to the Annemasse Agglo planning service.
Data and definitions
Two observed dates, with no annual reconstruction. France: 1 January. Switzerland: 31 December of the previous year. Swiss permanent population from the FSO; cantonal stock from OCSTAT. A descriptive cross-border comparison with differences in coverage. The three entities differ in administrative status, scale and statistical framework.
Definitions and limits
| Check | Choice and limit |
|---|---|
| Reference dates | France: 1 January. Switzerland: 31 December of the previous year, shown as the following 1 January. Construction years are not shifted. |
| Swiss population | FSO–STATPOP permanent resident population: 489,524 at the end of 2016 and 514,114 at the end of 2022. OCSTAT’s broader population figure is not used in the main comparison. |
| French population | Census municipal population, aggregated for each EPCI (inter-municipal authority). Constant boundaries as of 01.01.2026 according to INSEE. Not just the main town. |
| Swiss stock | OCSTAT cantonal building stock. Revised at the end of 2010: earlier data are not comparable. Any switch to the FSO stock must be documented. |
| Break in the population series | OCSTAT changed its cantonal statistics in 2013. The old and new series are not linked here. The comparison uses FSO population. |
| French stock | INSEE total of main, second or occasional homes and vacant dwellings. This stock is not the number of dwellings delivered during the year. |
| Frequency | Two common dates: 2017 and 2023. No intermediate annual figures are imputed. |
| New construction | Verified series of completed new dwellings for Geneva. French permits and housing starts exist in Sit@del, but their municipal aggregation has not been extracted and validated here. |
| Vacancy | France, 2023: 3,549/56,707 in the Pays de Gex and 5,002/53,334 in Annemasse Agglo. Swiss market vacancy on 1 June differs from the French census classification. |
| Area and density | France: 404.9 km² and 78.2 km²; published densities of 264.5 and 1,241.4 residents/km² in 2023. No comparable Swiss area is included: N/A. |
| Missing data | N/A means not obtained or not validated for this publication, not zero. No French series of completed dwellings is simulated. |
| Interpretation | Housing stock growing faster than population does not prove that supply is sufficient: households, occupancy, prices, quality and location all matter. No causal link is inferred. |
Formulas and checks
ΔP = Pfinal − Pinitial. Growth = 100 × (final/initial − 1). Average annual rate = 100 × [(final/initial)^(1/n) − 1], with n = 6. Index = 100 × value/base. Existing dwellings per 1,000 residents = 1,000 × stock/population. Residents per dwelling = population/stock; this is not average household size.
The ratio of additional residents per new dwelling is only calculated from a verified flow of new dwellings. Its denominator is not replaced by the change in stock. Geneva, 2017–2022: 15,589 new dwellings completed, against +16,621 dwellings in the stock; total cumulative construction gain reaches 15,759. The 862 difference between these last two series cannot be attributed here to a specific cause.
The French tables flag a correction dated 10.07.2026 for the 1999–2007 annualisation and one dated 28.06.2026 for LOG T8. The corrected 1999–2007 and LOG T8 rates are not used here.
Reading and checks
Figures confirmed in the cited series: population, housing stock, calculated changes, Geneva’s share of the total increase and the area of Annemasse Agglo. Rates are rounded to one decimal place in the text.
Professional reading: the questions in the cards and in the closing section (housing and jobs, forms of growth, public facilities, converting an existing building) are a design reading. Commuting flows, facility capacity and densification are not measured here, and no causal link is established.
Further work: prices, available land, household needs, what is actually built and permit lead times all need their own sources. No figures on these subjects are put forward here.
Sources and dates
- INSEE · Pays de Gex and Annemasse Agglo: POP T2 and LOG T1, dataset published 27.08.2026, 2023 census, boundaries as of 01.01.2026.
- FSO · permanent population of Geneva in 2016: FSO publication, 2018.
- Obsan report published by the canton, p. 13 of the PDF: FSO–STATPOP population 2022.
- OCSTAT T 09.02.1.2.02: stock by municipality, 2016 and 2022 sheets; updated 03.03.2026.
- OCSTAT T 09.04.1.4.01: annual construction in the canton, 2006–2025; updated 03.03.2026; 2025 provisional.
- OCSTAT definitions of stock and vacancy · population revision · DREAL/Sit@del3: permits, housing starts and revisions.
Accessed 14.10.2026, Paris time. The publication date differs from the year observed. This is a documented comparison with limited coverage, not a consistent twenty-year annual series.