The nouns habitant and inhabitant can be used in the same way, but habitant is archaic and rarely used anymore.
Habitant and inhabitant both refer to people or other creatures who live in a certain location, or within a certain container:
The inhabitants of the tent were a young couple.
The inhabitants of Oregon face terrible danger from wildfires.
Habitant also has a second archaic meaning that you might see in some books or articles—“a person born in France who has moved to French-speaking Canada.” However, today this meaning of the word is only used when discussing Canadian history.