Jules Dupuit was born on 18 May 1804 in Fossano, in Piedmont, where his father was Inspecteur des finances.
At the age of 18, he was admitted to the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris. He then studied also in Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees. From 1827 onwards, as engineer of the Ponts et Chaussees administration, he worked in the Departement of Sarthe, and, from 1844, in Angers, where he had to deal with the floods of the River Loire. He started to collaborate with the Journal des economistes in 1849. In 1850 he became chief engineer in Paris, director of the municipal administration, and general inspector of the civil engineers in 1855. He died in Paris on 5 September 1866.