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From the advent of the industrial era to the end of the “Trente Glorieuses”, the French space has experienced a phenomenon of concentration of its population in cities, and thus of urbanization. This dynamic has made the population of cities, which was previously in the minority, the majority. Will this phenomenon continue until the settlement of France becomes exclusively urban? Or is it not the opposite that is unfolding in the face of centrifugal settlement dynamics at all scales ? A detailed study of the evolutions and their causes, enriched by the analysis of changes in the hierarchy of cities, allows us to answer these questions.