Foix (; ; ) is a commune, the former capital of the County of Foix. Today it is the Préfecture of the Ariège department in southwestern France in the Midi-Pyrénées region. It is the least populous administrative centre of a department in all of France, although it is only very slightly smaller than Privas. It lies south of Toulouse, close to the border with Spain and Andorra. At the 2009 census, the city had a population of 9,861 people. It is only the second city of the department after Pamiers which is one of the two sub-prefectures.