Civic exam: how many centres per département? The official figures at 21 October 2026
On 21 October 2026, the two official maps of the civic exam (France Éducation international and CCI Paris Île-de-France) listed 491 centres in France, at 474 distinct addresses. Île-de-France holds 37% of resident foreigners but 20% of the centres, and no centre is listed in Creuse or Meuse.
Sources: France Éducation international (FEI) centre map, CCI Paris Île-de-France (CCIP) session search, Insee, foreign population by sex and age in 2022 and the Ministry's answer in the National Assembly (11 August 2026, re-read on 24 October 2026). The two centre lists were read on 21 October 2026 and not recounted since. Hexaciv is not an official site and does not give legal advice.
What the Ministry publishes, and what it does not
In its answer to the National Assembly, the Ministry of the Interior writes: « Au 26 mai 2026, 444 centres d'examen couvrent l'ensemble des départements et 71 125 personnes ont passé l'examen civique, avec un taux moyen de réussite de 81 %. » (In English: on 26 May 2026, 444 exam centres cover all départements and 71,125 people have taken the civic exam, with an average pass rate of 81%. The translation is ours.) It is the only official tally we found. Some guides published in June 2026 give 158 centres: that figure appears in no official source we could find. The 491 in our table are entries from the two official maps on 21 October, at 474 distinct addresses. We do not know what explains the gap with the Ministry's 444 (counting date, definition of a centre): its answer does not say.
We found no official source giving the pass rate per centre or per département, or the number of candidates per centre. So we have no ranking of the "best centres": no sourced figure would support one, and we do not invent any. What the two operators publish is the list of their centres. That is what we counted, département by département, and compared with the number of foreigners living there.
The count: 491 centres listed
Two operators are approved by the Ministry: FEI and the CCIP. On 21 October 2026:
- the FEI list for France held 249 centres;
- the CCIP session search, run without a city, returned 245 centres for the multi-year residence permit mention, 242 of them in France (the other 3 are abroad: Antananarivo, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, N'Djamena);
- that makes 491 entries at 474 distinct addresses: the same room can appear with both operators, or with one operator for several exams.
The Ministry's figure (444 on 26 May) and ours (491 on 21 October) cannot be compared line by line: we do not know how the Ministry counts a centre, and the lists may have changed between May and October. What you can take from both is that there are more than 440 places to register.
Where the centres are, compared with the foreigners who live there
We divided each département's number of centres by its number of resident foreigners (Insee 2022 census: 5,276,691 foreigners in the 96 départements of metropolitan France and the 4 overseas départements in the table; Mayotte is not in it). The 482 centres in those 100 départements give 9.1 centres per 100,000 foreigners, or one centre per 10,947 foreigners.
Île-de-France (départements 75, 77, 78, 91, 92, 93, 94 and 95) has 1,948,251 foreigners, 37% of the total, and 95 listed centres, 20%: 4.9 centres per 100,000 foreigners, against 9.1 overall. These are the ten départements with the most foreigners:
| Département | Resident foreigners (Insee 2022) | Listed centres (FEI + CCIP) | One centre for | Centres per 100,000 foreigners |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seine-Saint-Denis (93) | 430,537 | 22 | 19,570 foreigners | 5.1 |
| Paris (75) | 309,961 | 21 | 14,760 foreigners | 6.8 |
| Val-de-Marne (94) | 250,250 | 7 | 35,750 foreigners | 2.8 |
| Hauts-de-Seine (92) | 228,970 | 9 | 25,441 foreigners | 3.9 |
| Val-d'Oise (95) | 198,656 | 12 | 16,555 foreigners | 6.0 |
| Essonne (91) | 190,975 | 6 | 31,829 foreigners | 3.1 |
| Rhône (69) | 184,902 | 11 | 16,809 foreigners | 5.9 |
| Yvelines (78) | 176,790 | 8 | 22,099 foreigners | 4.5 |
| Bouches-du-Rhône (13) | 168,346 | 12 | 14,029 foreigners | 7.1 |
| Seine-et-Marne (77) | 162,112 | 10 | 16,211 foreigners | 6.2 |
The départements with the fewest centres relative to their foreign population (among those with at least 20,000 foreigners):
| Département | Resident foreigners | Listed centres | One centre for | Per 100,000 foreigners |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Val-de-Marne (94) | 250,250 | 7 | 35,750 | 2.8 |
| Essonne (91) | 190,975 | 6 | 31,829 | 3.1 |
| Isère (38) | 90,882 | 3 | 30,294 | 3.3 |
| Guyane (973) | 106,471 | 4 | 26,618 | 3.8 |
| Hauts-de-Seine (92) | 228,970 | 9 | 25,441 | 3.9 |
| Yvelines (78) | 176,790 | 8 | 22,099 | 4.5 |
| Sarthe (72) | 21,486 | 1 | 21,486 | 4.7 |
| Var (83) | 62,402 | 3 | 20,801 | 4.8 |
At the other end, small départements have many centres per foreign resident: for example 2 listed centres for 3,233 foreigners in Cantal and 2 for 3,440 in Lozère. That is not an advantage in itself: a centre may have a single room and a few sessions a month.
Two départements with no listed centre
On 21 October, neither the FEI list nor the CCIP search showed a centre in Creuse (23) or Meuse (55). Yet the Ministry wrote, on 26 May, that the centres cover all départements: a room in a neighbouring département or a recent opening may explain the gap; we do not know. If you live in either département, look at the centres in the neighbouring départements on both official maps and check the dates directly with the centre.
What to do with these figures
- Open both maps: FEI and the CCIP do not show the same centres or the same dates. A centre missing from one may be on the other.
- Compare prices: each centre sets its own price. The Ministry says it is between €60 and €80, and some centres display less or more (from €55 to €100 in the prices we recorded); the detail is on our page price, registration and centres (in French).
- Ask the centre for dates: neither the maps nor the Ministry give a guaranteed waiting time, and our figures measure neither places nor waiting times. Ask the centre for its next dates before you plan the rest of your application.
- Prepare before you pay: the exam is the same everywhere (40 questions, 32 correct answers to pass), and you can retake it as many times as needed, but each sitting is paid.
Method and limits
- Lists: the FEI list "civic exam, France" (249 centres) and the CCIP session search without a city, for the mentions multi-year residence permit, resident card and naturalisation (245 results for each), read in a browser on 21 October 2026. Each centre is assigned to a département by the postcode of its address.
- Duplicates: 474 distinct addresses out of 491 entries (same postcode and same first words of the street).
- Population: resident foreigners in the 2022 census (Insee, main sample). This population includes European Union nationals, who do not have to take the exam: the centres-to-foreigners ratio is a reference point, not a coverage rate.
- What the count does not measure: the number of places, sessions and candidates per centre, waiting times, the quality of centres, and pass rates, which are not published.
- The lists change: a centre can open or close. The figures hold for 21 October 2026.
Find a centre
Every listed centre has its own page, with the address, the price when the centre displays one (and the page where we read it), booking and the source: find a civic exam centre.
Download the data
- Listed centres and resident foreigners by département (CSV, 100 départements)
- List of the 491 centres: operator, name, address, département (CSV)
Licence: Licence Ouverte 2.0. To cite: Hexaciv (2026), "Civic exam: listed centres by département and resident foreigners", FEI and CCIP lists of 21 October 2026, Insee RP 2022, hexaciv.com/en/blog/examen-civique-centres-par-departement-en.
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Frequently asked questions
How many civic exam centres are there in France? The Ministry of the Interior gives 444 centres on 26 May 2026. On 21 October 2026, the official FEI and CCIP maps listed 491 centres in France, at 474 distinct addresses. The two figures are not counted in the same way.
Are there départements with no civic exam centre? On 21 October 2026, neither the FEI list nor the CCIP search shows a centre in Creuse or Meuse. The Ministry says the centres cover all départements, so check with FEI and the CCIP.
Where can I find the official list of centres? On the France Éducation international centre map (civic exam) and on the CCI Paris Île-de-France session search. Both are indicated on the Ministry of the Interior's official civic training site.
Is the pass rate per centre or per département published? No, we found no official source that publishes it. The only official rate is the average of 81% for 71,125 candidates on 26 May 2026, given by the Ministry to the National Assembly.
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