Montpellier is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the department of Hérault. As of 2023, 310,240 people live in the city proper, while its metropolitan area has a population of 813,272 as of 2020. Montpellier is the third-largest French city near the Mediterranean coast, behind Marseille and Nice, and the seventh-largest city of France overall. The inhabitants are called Montpelliérains and Montpelliéraines.