Forbach vs Thionville
Two municipalities in Moselle, France, side by side on the five things this site grades — climate & hazards, local vitality, services, affordability and property market. Every figure comes from official open data, and the ones that cannot honestly be compared are marked rather than quietly averaged.
Forbach
Thionville
A provisional grade had at least one pillar filled with a neutral 50 rather than measured. Where one side is provisional and the other is not, the gap between the two grades may be partly made of that fill — treat the pillar rows below as the evidence, not the letters.
Pillar by pillar
| Pillar | Forbach | Thionville |
|---|---|---|
| Climate & hazards | 35/100 | 36/100 ▲ |
| Local vitality | 78/100 | 81/100 ▲ |
| Services & access | 61/100 ▲ | 55/100 |
| Affordability | not measured | not measured |
| Property market | 15/100 | 29/100 ▲ |
Pillar scores are percentile ranks within each municipality's own country, so a 70 in Spain and a 70 in Italy each mean "ahead of 70% of this country's towns" — not that the two places are alike.
The underlying figures
| Indicator | Forbach | Thionville |
|---|---|---|
| Population | 21,509 inhab. (2020) | 41,383 inhab. (2020) |
| Population trend (~10y) | -0.6% (2015→2020) declining — the key rural depopulation risk | +1.8% (2015→2020) growing / stable |
| Tourism / short-let potential | 39.4 beds / 1,000 inhab. collective accommodation + second homes (INSEE bed equivalences) | 87.4 beds / 1,000 inhab. ▲ collective accommodation + second homes (INSEE bed equivalences) |
| Foreign residents | 19.86% (2021) ▲ | 8.68% (2021) |
| Everyday essentials | 4 of 4 in the municipality pharmacy, supermarket, school, doctor | 4 of 4 in the municipality pharmacy, supermarket, school, doctor |
| International airport | Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) (316.2 km) ▲ | Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) (262.8 km) |
| Wildfire exposure | <0.1% over 30 years (178 detection(s) < 20 km, max FRP 38.6 MW) NASA FIRMS 2012–2025 | <0.1% over 30 years (379 detection(s) < 20 km, max FRP 40.9 MW) NASA FIRMS 2012–2025 |
| Seismic activity | 9.1% over 30 years (11 quake(s) < 100 km, max M5) ▲ USGS, since 1960 | 18% over 30 years (9 quake(s) < 100 km, max M4.5) USGS, since 1960 |
| Tsunami exposure | 0% over 30 years (0 recorded tsunami(s) < 20 km, max height 0 m) NOAA, since 1600 | 0% over 30 years (0 recorded tsunami(s) < 20 km, max height 0 m) NOAA, since 1600 |
Which way each is going
| Population momentum | Forbach | Thionville |
|---|---|---|
| Annualised change | -0.12 %/yr 2015–2020 | +0.36 %/yr 2015–2020 |
Demographic momentum is an absolute rate and feeds no grade of its own — see the momentum pages.
How to read this
Grades are computed from official open data — statistics offices, hazard catalogues, land registries and OpenStreetMap — never from reviews, listings or opinion. Each indicator is ranked against the other municipalities of the same country, except the natural hazards, which are absolute 30-year probabilities and therefore mean the same thing everywhere.
That is why some rows above carry no comparison. Spain counts registered tourist dwellings where Italy counts every tourist bed place; each statistics office defines a foreign resident differently; the property-price vintages run from 2018 in Italy to 2025 in Portugal. Putting two such numbers side by side and calling the difference a finding would be inventing one, so the row states the reason instead.
Full method, sources and known gaps: the methodology page.