Territory of the French Republic in the world
(excl. Antarctica where sovereignty is suspended)
| Capital A capital is the area of a country, province, region, or state, regarded as enjoying primary status; although there are exceptions, a capital is almost always a city which physically encompasses the offices and meeting places of the seat of government and fixed by law. Alternate terms include capital city and political capital; the latter phrase
(and largest city) This article is about the demographic features of the population of France, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects |
Paris Paris (pronounced /ˈpærɪs/ in English; [paʁi] in French) is the capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region (also known as the "Paris Region"; French: Région parisienne). The city of Paris, within its limits largely unchanged since
48°52′N 2°19.59′E / 48.867°N 2.3265°E |
| Official languages An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other territory. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a language a legal status, even if that language is not |
French French is a Romance language spoken, around the world, by about 77 million people as a first language (mother tongue), by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 54 countries[citation needed]. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where |
| Recognised regional languages A regional language is a language spoken in an area of a nation state, whether it be a small area, a federal state or province, or some wider area |
Alsatian Alsatian (Alsatian and Alemannic German: Elsässerditsch ; French: Alsacien; German: Elsässisch or Elsässerdeutsch) is a Low Alemannic German dialect spoken in most of Alsace, a region in eastern France which has passed between French and German control many times; Basque Basque is the language spoken by the Basque people who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in north-eastern Spain and south-western France; Breton The Breton language is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany (Breizh/Bretagne), France; Catalan Catalan is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencià (Valencian), as well as in the city of Alghero on the Italian island of Sardinia. It is also spoken, although with; Corsican Corsican is a continuum of Romance languages spoken and written on the islands of Corsica (France) and northern Sardinia (Italy), alongside French and Italian, which are the official languages. Corsu is the traditional native language of the Corsican people, and was long the sole language of the island, which was acquired by France in 1768. In 1990; Flemish; Franco-Provençal Franco-Provençal or Arpitan or Romand (in Switzerland) (Vernacular: francoprovençâl, arpitan, patouès; Italian: francoprovenzale, arpitano, dialetto, patoà; French: francoprovençal, arpitan, patois) is a Romance language with several distinct dialects that form a linguistic sub-group separate from Langue d'Oïl and Langue d'Oc. The name; Lorraine Franconian Lorraine Franconian is a designation, in practice ambiguous, for dialects of German spoken in the north-eastern part of the French region of Lorraine. These dialects all belong to the Western Central High German (German: Westmitteldeutsch) group of German dialects. The term Lorraine Franconian has multiple denotations. Some scholars use it to, Occitan Occitan , known also as Lenga d'òc in Occitan or Langue d'oc in French (native name: occitan [utsiˈta], lenga d'òc [ˈleŋɡɔˈðɔ(k)]; native nickname: la lenga nòstra i.e. "our [own] language") is a Romance language spoken in Occitania, that is, Southern France, the Occitan Valleys of Italy, Monaco and in the Aran Valley of Spain; Oïl languages Langues d'oïl is the linguistic and historical designation of the Gallo-Romance languages originating from the northern territories of Roman Gaul, which today make up northern France, part of Belgium, and the Channel Islands. These languages have all been replaced by Standard French as the official and predominant language in their territories, |
| Demonym A demonym, also referred to as a gentilic, is a name for a resident of a locality which is derived from the name of the particular locality. The word demonym comes from the Greek word for "populace" with the suffix for "name" (-onym). In English, the demonym is often the same as the name of the people's native language: the |
French To be French, according to the first article of the Constitution, is to be a citizen of France, regardless of one's origin, race, or religion According to its principles, France has devoted herself the destiny of a proposition nation, a generic territory where people are bounded only by the French language and the assumed willingness to live |
| Government A government is the body within an organization that has the authority to make and enforce rules, laws and regulations |
Unitary A unitary state is a country whose three organs of state are governed as one single unit. The political power of government in such states may well be transferred to lower levels, to national, regional or local elected assemblies, governors and mayors , but the central government retains the principal right to recall such delegated power (e.g. the semi-presidential The semi-presidential system, also known as the presidential-parliamentary system, or premier-presidential system, is a system of government in which a president and a prime minister are both active participants in the day-to-day administration of the state. It differs from a parliamentary republic in that it has a popularly elected head of state republic A republic is a form of government in which the head of state is not a monarch and the people have an impact on its government. The word 'republic' is derived from the Latin phrase res publica which can be translated as "public affairs" |
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President The President of the French Republic colloquially referred to in English as the President of France, is France's elected Head of State |
Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Sarkozy (pronounced [nikɔla saʁkɔzi] , born Nicolas Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa on 28 January 1955 in the 17th arrondissement of Paris) is the 23rd President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier (UMP The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right French political party) |
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Prime Minister The Prime Minister of France in the Fifth Republic is the functional head of the government and Council of Ministers of France. The head of state in France is the President of the French Republic. During the Second, Third and Fourth Republics, the Head of Government was called President of the Council of Ministers (Président du Conseil des |
François Fillon François Fillon is the current Prime Minister of France, having been appointed to that office by President Nicolas Sarkozy on 17 May 2007 (UMP The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right French political party) |
| Legislature A legislature is a type of representative deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. Legislatures are known by many names, the most common being parliament and congress, although these terms also have more specific meanings. In parliamentary systems |
Parliament The French Parliament or Parliament of France is the deliberative and legislative branch (parliament) of the Government of France. The current parliamentary system in France is bicameral, and the Parliament is composed of: |
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Upper House An upper house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house |
Senate The Senate is the upper house of the Parliament of France, presided over by a president |
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Lower House A lower house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house |
National Assembly The French National Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of France under the Fifth Republic. The other is the Senate (“Sénat”) |
| Formation The history of France has been divided into a series of historical articles navigable through the list to the right. The chronological and governmental regimes in France. The history of other cultural topics such as French art and literature can be found on their own pages. For information on the modern country, see the France article. For other |
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Treaty of Verdun In the Treaty of Verdun was a treaty by the three surviving sons of Louis the Pious, Charlemagne's grandsons, which divided his territories, the Frankish Empire, into three kingdoms. Though often presented as the beginning of a devolution or dissolution of Charlemagne's unitary empire, it in fact reflected the continued adherence to the Germanic, |
843 |
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French Revolution The French Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval and radical change in the history of France, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on Enlightenment principles of citizenship and |
1789 |
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Fifth Republic The Fifth Republic is the fifth and current republican constitution of France, which was introduced on 5 October 1958. The Fifth Republic emerged from the collapse of the French Fourth Republic, replacing a parliamentary government with a semi-presidential system. It is currently France's second-longest lasting regime since before the 1789 French |
1958 |
| EU The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 member states, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community. With almost 500 million citizens, the EU combined generates an accession A Member State of the European Union is any one of the 27 sovereign states that have acceded to the European Union since its de facto inception in 1951 as the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). From an original membership of six states, there have been six successive enlargements, the largest occurring on 1 May 2004, when ten states joined |
25 March 1957 |
| Area Area is a quantity expressing the two-dimensional size of a defined part of a surface, typically a region bounded by a closed curve. The term surface area refers to the total area of the exposed surface of a 3-dimensional solid, such as the sum of the areas of the exposed sides of a polyhedron. Area is an important invariant in the differential |
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Total[1] |
674,843 km2 To help compare orders of magnitude of different geographical regions we list here surface areas between 100,000 km2 and 1,000,000 km2. See also areas of other orders of magnitude (43rd This is a list of the sovereign states and dependent territories of the world, sorted by total area, including all entities on the ISO standard ISO 3166-1)
260,558 sq mi The square mile is an imperial and US unit of measure for an area equal to the area of a square of one statute mile. It should not be confused with miles square, which refers to the number of miles on each side squared. For instance, 20 miles square (20×20 miles) is equal to 400 square miles |
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Metropolitan France Metropolitan France is the part of France located in Europe, including Corsica. It can also be described as mainland France or as the French mainland and the island of Corsica. By contrast, Overseas France (la France d'outre-mer, or l'Outre-mer, or colloquially les DOM-TOM) is the collective name for the French overseas departments (départements |
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- IGN The Institut Géographique National or IGN is a French public state administrative establishment founded in 1940, whose task is to produce and maintain geographical information for France and its overseas departments and territories[2] |
551,695 km2 To help compare orders of magnitude of different geographical regions we list here surface areas between 100,000 km2 and 1,000,000 km2. See also areas of other orders of magnitude (47th This is a list of the sovereign states and dependent territories of the world, sorted by total area, including all entities on the ISO standard ISO 3166-1)
213,010 sq mi |
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- Cadastre A cadastre , using a cadastral survey or cadastral map, is a comprehensive register of the metes-and-bounds real property of a country. A cadastre commonly includes details of the ownership, the tenure, the precise location (some include GPS coordinates), the dimensions (and area), the cultivations if rural, and the value of individual parcels of[3] |
543,965 km2 To help compare orders of magnitude of different geographical regions we list here surface areas between 100,000 km2 and 1,000,000 km2. See also areas of other orders of magnitude (47th This is a list of the sovereign states and dependent territories of the world, sorted by total area, including all entities on the ISO standard ISO 3166-1)
210,026 sq mi |
| Population |
| |
(January 1, 2009 estimate) |
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Total[1] |
64,303,482[5] (19th) |
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Metropolitan France |
62,448,977[4] (22nd) |
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Density[6] |
114.8/km2 (89th)
239.7/sq mi |
| GDP (PPP) |
2008 estimate |
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Total |
$2.086 trillion[7] |
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Per capita |
$33,334[7] (18) |
| GDP (nominal) |
2009 estimate |
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Total |
$2.499 trillion[7] (5th) |
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Per capita |
$39,922[7] (16) |
| Gini (2002) |
26.7 |
| HDI (2006) |
▲ 0.955[8] (high) (11th) |
| Currency |
Euro,[9] CFP Franc[10]
(EUR, XPF) |
| Time zone |
CET[6] (UTC+1) |
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Summer (DST) |
CEST[6] (UTC+2) |
| Drives on the |
right |
| Internet TLD |
.fr[11] |
| Calling code |
+331 |
| 1 |
The overseas regions and collectivities form part of the French telephone numbering plan, but have their own country calling codes: Guadeloupe +590; Martinique +596; French Guiana +594, Réunion and Mayotte +262; Saint Pierre et Miquelon +508. The overseas territories are not part of the French telephone numbering plan; their country calling codes are: New Caledonia +687, French Polynesia +689; Wallis and Futuna +681 |
France (pronounced /ˈfræns/ ( listen), French pronunciation (help·info) or /ˈfrɑːns/; French: [fʁɑ̃s]), officially the French Republic (French: République française, pronounced: [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents.[12] Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as L’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its main ideals expressed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
Metropolitan France is bordered (clockwise from the north) by Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Andorra, and Spain. France's overseas departments and collectivities also share land borders with Brazil and Suriname (bordering French Guiana), and the Netherlands Antilles (bordering Saint-Martin). France is linked to the United Kingdom by the Channel Tunnel, which passes underneath the English Channel.
France is the largest country in the European Union by area and the second largest in Europe behind Ukraine (first if one includes its extra-European territories like Guadeloupe). France has been a major power for many centuries with strong economic, cultural, military and political influence. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonized much of North America; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second largest empire of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Pacific islands. France is a developed country and possesses the fifth largest[13] economy by nominal GDP and eighth largest[14] economy by purchasing power parity. It is the most visited country in the world, receiving 82 million foreign tourists annually.[15] France is one of the founding members of the European Union, and has the largest land area of all members. It is also a founding member of the United Nations, and a member of the Francophonie, the G8, NATO, OECD, WTO and the Latin Union. It is one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, possesses the third largest number of nuclear weapons in the world and the largest number of nuclear power plants in the European Union.
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