In 2018, the commune of Baume-les-Messieurs had only 161 inhabitants, against 909 at its peak in 1806 before the rural exodus of the 19th and 20th centuries. Its territory with an area of 8 square miles (13.09 km2) extends in one of the most famous blind valleys of Jura at the bottom of a cirque surrounded by the 328 feet (100 m) high limestone cliffs of the first Jura plateau. This rural commune isolated by the relief and the harshness of winter is part of the attraction area of Lons-le-Saunier from which it is 8.6 miles (13.9 km) away by the D471.