Lists of French companies by department: building a reliable regional file

“All companies in Finistère”, “construction trades in Gironde and Dordogne”, “shops in the Lille metropolitan area”: most requests for company data start with an area. The split looks simple, yet it hides a few traps that drop or add companies at the edges. Here is how to build a reliable list, whether you start from the Sirene database or from a purchased file.

Department and region: two levels, two codes

France has 101 departments, five of them overseas, and 18 regions: 13 in mainland France and 5 overseas. Two codes link a business to a department:

• the municipality code from INSEE’s official geographic code (COG), which identifies the municipality of the establishment; its first two characters give the department (2A and 2B for Corsica, three digits from 971 to 976 overseas);
• the postcode from La Poste, which identifies a mail delivery area. Its first two digits usually match the department, but not always.

The Sirene database provides both for each establishment (see exporting the Sirene database). Map data and websites only give the address, and therefore the postcode.

Postcode or municipality code: what the figures show

We compared the two codes in the official La Poste postcode database (version of 8 October 2026, 39,192 rows, 6,328 postcodes):

• 24 municipalities have a postcode that starts with the number of another department. Fougueyrolles and Port-Sainte-Foy-et-Ponchapt in Dordogne are served by postcode 33220 of Gironde; Claret in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence by 05110 of Hautes-Alpes; Saint-Pierre-Laval in Allier by 42620 of Loire; Chancia in Jura by 01590 of Ain.
• 16 postcodes serve municipalities in two departments, for example 01200, shared between Ain and Haute-Savoie.
• In Corsica, all postcodes start with 20; the third digit decides: 20000 to 20190 for Corse-du-Sud, 20200 to 20620 for Haute-Corse, with no code common to both.

Across a whole department the gap is small, but it affects precisely the border areas, often the heart of a catchment area. If your target is “businesses within 30 minutes of our branch”, think in municipalities or neighbouring departments rather than in one department strictly.

Our database, region by region

The table gives the number of records in our database per mainland region and the share of records with at least a phone number, their own email address or a website (as of 4 November 2026). The region is derived from the postcode of the address; failing that, from the region or department code supplied by the source.

You can scroll the table horizontally.

40,406 records have neither a usable postcode nor a region code, so they cannot enter any geographic selection. Overseas, the database holds only 135 records in total: for Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Réunion or Mayotte our files are not a suitable source today. Official figures on the number of businesses per region are on the companies by region page.

Building the list in four steps

1. Draw the area. List the departments, adding neighbouring ones if your sales staff or technicians travel. For Paris, consider the inner ring (Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne), where many companies working in the capital are based.
2. Choose the industry. Combine the NAF codes of the trades you are after (see NAF and APE codes) or start from one of our 21 industries.
3. Decide the level. One row per establishment for a sales round or local mailing; one row per company, at the head office, for an offer decided centrally.
4. Set the mandatory fields. Phone for a calling campaign, own email address for a mailing, website for qualification before contact. Each mandatory field reduces the volume: the quote states how many records remain.

Ordering a list by department

Enter the departments or regions, the industry and the mandatory fields in the request form. We reply with the number of records in the selection, the date of the data and the price; the export of a whole industry for all of France is in the price list. The columns of the file, including postcode, municipality, department and region, are described on the export and sample file page.

Frequently asked questions

Is the postcode enough to sort companies by department?

Almost always, but not always. In the official La Poste database of 8 October 2026, 24 municipalities have a postcode that starts with the number of another department, and 16 postcodes serve municipalities in two departments. For an exact sort, use INSEE’s municipality code.

Can you deliver the companies of a single department?

Yes, on quotation. We derive the department from the postcode of the published address. Our published figures stop at regional level; the quote gives the number of records for the department or departments requested, with the date of the data and the price.

How do you tell Corse-du-Sud from Haute-Corse?

By the municipality code (2A or 2B) or by the third digit of the postcode: in the La Poste database, codes 20000 to 20190 belong to Corse-du-Sud and codes 20200 to 20620 to Haute-Corse, with no shared code.

As of 8 November 2026. Sources: official La Poste postcode database (file of 8 October 2026, our comparison with municipality codes), INSEE official geographic code; figures of our database as of 4 November 2026 (Overture Maps and company websites).