Bignay

Charente-Maritime · CC Vals de Saintonge Communauté · INSEE 17046

Somewhere to eat or drink, but no food shop and no school.

Few services 20/100 · confidence: high· Better served than 38 % of the {n|commune|communes} of a similar size.

Identity

Bignay (INSEE 17046) is in Charente-Maritime (17), part of CC Vals de Saintonge Communauté. Population 359 (2023). ^[1]

INSEE density class: Rural à habitat dispersé (level 6). ^[2]

Data vintages: INSEE BPE 2025 · INSEE SIRENE 2026-09 · INSEE census (RP) 2023 · INSEE COG 2026 · INSEE density grid 2026.

Permanent link: https://vivantrural.com/en/fr/17046-bignay

Vitality score

Vitality score 20/100 — Few services (model fr-v0.2).

Confidence: high.

Better served than 38 % of the 18,035 communes of a similar size.

Compare this with communes of a similar size. The score measures how well a place is served relative to its own size band, and larger communes score higher as a rule — so it reads meaningfully against another village, and misleadingly against a town.

Measured but not scored in this model: Market. See the methodology for why.

Component	Value (0–1)	Weight	Contribution
Daily food	0	25	0
Social	0.32	20	6.32
Education	0	10	0
Health	0	10	0
Public & culture	0	5	0
Population trend	0.65	10	6.51
Housing mix	0.84	5	4.21

Services

What is here, at a glance

Food 0 of 6

Eating out 0 of 1

Cafés and bars 1 of 1

Schools 0 of 3

Health 0 of 4

Public services 0 of 1

Culture 0 of 2

Sport 0 of 2

Everyday services 0 of 3

Lodging 0 of 2

One square per service type, shaded by how many: none, one, a few, five or more. A blank square means none was counted — the sources do not distinguish “none here” from “not counted”.

Somewhere to eat or drink, but no food shop and no school. ^[3,4]

1 × Café / bar (MEFISTO BAR). ^[4]

Not counted, because the business register records them as closed: 1 × Primary school (élémentaire).

Not found in the commune: Bakery (boulangerie), Butcher (boucherie), Grocery (épicerie / supérette), Supermarket, Restaurant, Nursery school (maternelle), Primary school (élémentaire), GP (médecin généraliste), Pharmacy, Post office / agence postale, Library. ^[3,4]

All 25 service types, with per-source counts

Type	Count	Names	Sources
Bakery (boulangerie)	0		INSEE BPE 0 / INSEE SIRENE 0 [3,4]
Butcher (boucherie)	0		INSEE BPE 0 / INSEE SIRENE 0 [3,4]
Grocery (épicerie / supérette)	0		INSEE BPE 0 / INSEE SIRENE 0 [3,4]
Supermarket	0		INSEE BPE 0 / INSEE SIRENE 0 [3,4]
Cheese shop (fromagerie)	0		INSEE SIRENE 0 [4]
Fishmonger	0		INSEE BPE 0 / INSEE SIRENE 0 [3,4]
Restaurant	0		INSEE SIRENE 1 / INSEE BPE 0 [4]
Café / bar	1	MEFISTO BAR	INSEE SIRENE 1 [4]
Nursery school (maternelle)	0		INSEE BPE 0 [3]
Primary school (élémentaire)	0		INSEE BPE 0 [3]
Collège	0		INSEE BPE 0 [3]
GP (médecin généraliste)	0		INSEE BPE 0 [3]
Pharmacy	0		INSEE BPE 0 / INSEE SIRENE 0 [3,4]
Nurse	0		INSEE BPE 0 [3]
Dentist	0		INSEE BPE 0 [3]
Post office / agence postale	0		INSEE BPE 0 [3]
Library	0		INSEE BPE 0 [3]
Cinema	0		INSEE BPE 0 [3]
Gym / sports hall	0		INSEE BPE 0 [3]
Swimming pool	0		INSEE BPE 0 [3]
Bank	0		INSEE BPE 0 [3]
Hairdresser	0		INSEE BPE 0 / INSEE SIRENE 0 [3,4]
Fuel station	0		INSEE BPE 0 / INSEE SIRENE 0 [3,4]
Hotel	0		INSEE BPE 0 / INSEE SIRENE 0 [3,4]
Campsite	0		INSEE BPE 0 / INSEE SIRENE 0 [3,4]

Market and village life

Market day: unknown — nothing found in the datasets or on the commune website.

Trajectory

1968: 237 peak 2012: 445 2023: 359 axis from zero, so the slope compares with any other commune

Population 445 (2012) → 359 (2023): -19.3 % over 10 years. ^[5,1]

Population 312 (1990) → 359 (2023): 15.1 % over 30 years. ^[6,1]

Dwellings (2023): 202, of which 7.9 % second homes and 7.9 % vacant. ^[7]

Access and surroundings

Which way the everyday services lie

Primary school — 3.3 km EFood shop — 4.1 km WGP — 5.1 km NEBakery — 5.5 km EPharmacy — 6.9 km NE Straight-line, from the mairie, in the direction given. Services in the same town share a spoke. Distance is not travel time: a pass or an estuary can double it.

Bakery (Mazeray): 5.5 km to the east (straight line). ^[8]

Food shop (Saint-Savinien): 4.1 km to the west (straight line). ^[9]

GP (Ternant): 5.1 km to the north-east (straight line). ^[10]

Pharmacy (Saint-Jean-d'Angély): 6.9 km to the north-east (straight line). ^[11]

Primary school (Mazeray): 3.3 km to the east (straight line). ^[8]

Climate

Where this sits nationally

Days at or above 30 °C 22.1

Days at or below 0 °C 47.6

Muggy days a summer 6.4

Each track runs from the 5th to the 95th percentile of the 34,141 communes with that measurement; the tick is the median. A value beyond either end sits at the end and is marked ▸.

An average of 22 days a year at or above 30 °C and 48 days at or below 0 °C, over 13 complete years in 1995–2024. ^[12]

Measured at the LES NOUILLERS weather station, 7 km away at 18 m; the village itself is at 42 m. ^[12]

Muggy days — a dew point at or above 18 °C — average 6 days a summer. ^[12]

Humidity measured at SAINTES, 17.8 km away at 38 m, over 30 summers. ^[12]

An average of 859 mm of rain a year, spread over 116 days — about 7.4 mm on a day it rains. ^[12]

Rainfall measured at LES NOUILLERS, 7 km away at 18 m. Rainfall is not adjusted for altitude: unlike temperature it has no simple gradient to correct by. ^[12]

Uncertainties

No specific uncertainties flagged.

References

INSEE census (RP) 2023 — 17046/2023
INSEE density grid 2026
INSEE BPE 2025
INSEE SIRENE 2026-09
INSEE census (RP) 2023 — 17046/2012
INSEE census (RP) 2023 — 17046/1990
INSEE census (RP) 2023 — 17046/logement/2023
INSEE BPE 2025 — 17226
INSEE BPE 2025 — 17397
INSEE BPE 2025 — 17440
INSEE BPE 2025 — 17347
Météo-France daily climatology 1995-2024

Villages like this one

Matched on size, density, second homes and which everyday shops and services are present — not on the score, so a village of the same kind that is doing better or worse shows up rather than being hidden.

Commune	Dept	Distance	Population	Score	Band	Climate vs here
Saint-Just-sur-Dive	49	145 km N	373	18.6	No daily shops	Similar summers, milder winters.Summers feel drier.summer 92 % · winter 80 % · humidity 71 %
Liercourt	80	495 km N	327	19.9	No daily shops	Cooler summers and milder winters.Summers feel drier.summer 59 % · winter 73 % · humidity 64 %
Maizy	02	503 km NE	392	18.4	No daily shops	Cooler summers and colder winters.Summers feel drier.summer 69 % · winter 81 % · humidity 64 %
Vauchamps	51	458 km NE	338	22.6	Few services	Cooler summers, similar winters.Summers feel drier.summer 77 % · winter 95 % · humidity 64 %
Wolfersdorf	68	618 km E	354	20.4	Few services	Similar summers, colder winters.Summers feel drier.summer 87 % · winter 77 % · humidity 71 %
Nantillé	17	13 km SE	325	21.1	Few services	Similar summers, milder winters.Summers feel about as humid.summer 97 % · winter 78 % · humidity 93 %

Order by distance instead

Commune	Dept	Distance	Population	Score	Band	Climate vs here
Nantillé	17	13 km SE	325	21.1	Few services	Similar summers, milder winters.Summers feel about as humid.summer 97 % · winter 78 % · humidity 93 %
Saint-Just-sur-Dive	49	145 km N	373	18.6	No daily shops	Similar summers, milder winters.Summers feel drier.summer 92 % · winter 80 % · humidity 71 %
Vauchamps	51	458 km NE	338	22.6	Few services	Cooler summers, similar winters.Summers feel drier.summer 77 % · winter 95 % · humidity 64 %
Liercourt	80	495 km N	327	19.9	No daily shops	Cooler summers and milder winters.Summers feel drier.summer 59 % · winter 73 % · humidity 64 %
Maizy	02	503 km NE	392	18.4	No daily shops	Cooler summers and colder winters.Summers feel drier.summer 69 % · winter 81 % · humidity 64 %
Wolfersdorf	68	618 km E	354	20.4	Few services	Similar summers, colder winters.Summers feel drier.summer 87 % · winter 77 % · humidity 71 %

Sort and compare these on the full list →

…and in much the same climate

The same match on size and services, narrowed to communes whose summers, winters and summer humidity are all close to Bignay's. All three are required, so this section is absent for the 11.8 % of communes with no humidity station near enough to measure: two temperature axes alone cannot tell a muggy coast from a dry one.

Commune	Dept	Distance	Population	Score	Band	Climate vs here
Le Mung	17	9.8 km SW	317	20.2	Few services	Much the same temperatures.Summers feel about as humid.summer 100 % · winter 100 % · humidity 100 %
Cos	09	370 km SE	350	16.4	No daily shops	Much the same temperatures.Summers feel about as humid.summer 95 % · winter 89 % · humidity 93 %
Castin	32	264 km S	337	14.3	No daily shops	Much the same temperatures.Summers feel about as humid.summer 87 % · winter 97 % · humidity 93 %
Saint-Mary	16	77 km E	354	24.4	Few services	Much the same temperatures.Summers feel about as humid.summer 95 % · winter 93 % · humidity 86 %
Chantillac	16	71 km S	370	11.9	No daily shops	Much the same temperatures.Summers feel about as humid.summer 100 % · winter 89 % · humidity 86 %
Lasseube-Propre	32	277 km S	337	17.4	No daily shops	Much the same temperatures.Summers feel about as humid.summer 87 % · winter 96 % · humidity 93 %

Elsewhere

Wikipedia (en) ·Wikipedia (fr) · INSEE dossier complet · OpenStreetMap · Web search · Map

Permanent link: https://vivantrural.com/en/fr/17046-bignay