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French Republic République française (French) | |
|---|---|
 Flag
![Coat of arms[I] of France](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/36/Arms_of_the_French_Republic.svg/75px-Arms_of_the_French_Republic.svg.png) Coat of arms[I]
| |
| Motto: "Liberté, égalité, fraternité" ("Liberty, Equality, Fraternity") | |
| Anthem: "La Marseillaise" | |
Diplomatic emblem | |
    Location of France (blue or dark green) – in Europe (green & dark grey) | |
| Capital and largest city | Paris 48°51′N 2°21′E / 48.850°N 2.350°E |
| Official language and national language | French[II] |
| Nationality (2021)[3] |
|
| Religion (2023)[4] |
|
| Demonym(s) | French |
| Government | Unitary semi-presidential republic |
• President | Emmanuel Macron |
• Prime Minister | Gabriel Attal |
• President of the Senate | Gérard Larcher |
• President of the National Assembly | Yaël Braun-Pivet |
| Legislature | Parliament |
• Upper house | Senate |
• Lower house | National Assembly |
| Establishment | |
• Kingdom of the West Franks – Treaty of Verdun | 10 August 843 |
• Kingdom of France – Capetian rulers of France | 3 July 987 |
• French Republic – French First Republic | 22 September 1792 |
• Founded the EEC[III] | 1 January 1958 |
• Current constitution – French Fifth Republic | 4 October 1958 |
| Area | |
• Total | 643,801 km2 (248,573 sq mi)[5] (42nd) |
• Water (%) | 0.86[6] |
• Metropolitan France (IGN) | 551,695 km2 (213,011 sq mi)[IV] (50th) |
• Metropolitan France (Cadastre) | 543,940.9 km2 (210,016.8 sq mi)[V][7] (50th) |
| Population | |
• January 2024 estimate |  68,373,433[8] (20th) |
• Density | 106.20274/km2 (106th) |
• Metropolitan France, estimate as of January 2024[update] | 66,142,961[9] (23rd) |
• Density | 122/km2 (316.0/sq mi) (89th) |
| GDP (PPP) | 2024 estimate |
• Total |  $3.988 trillion[10] (10th) |
• Per capita | $60,339[10] (26th) |
| GDP (nominal) | 2024 estimate |
• Total | $3.130 trillion[10] (7th) |
• Per capita | $47,359[10] (23rd) |
| Gini (2022) |  29.8[11]low |
| HDI (2022) |  0.910[12]very high (28th) |
| Currency |
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| Time zone | UTC+1 (Central European Time) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (Central European Summer Time[IX]) |
| Note: Various other time zones are observed in overseas France.[VIII] Although France is in the UTC (Z) (Western European Time) zone, UTC+01:00 (Central European Time) was enforced as the standard time since 25 February 1940, upon German occupation in WW2, with a +0:50:39 offset (and +1:50:39 during DST) from Paris LMT (UTC+0:09:21).[13] | |
| Date format | dd/mm/yyyy (AD) |
| Driving side | right |
| Calling code | +33[X] |
| ISO 3166 code | FR |
| Internet TLD | .fr[XI] |
Source gives area of metropolitan France as 551,500 km2 (212,900 sq mi) and lists overseas regions separately, whose areas sum to 89,179 km2 (34,432 sq mi). Adding these give the total shown here for the entire French Republic. The World Factbook reports the total as 643,801 km2 (248,573 sq mi). | |
France,[a] officially the French Republic,[b] is a country located primarily in Western Europe. It also includes overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans,[XII] giving it one of the largest discontiguous exclusive economic zones in the world. Metropolitan France shares borders with Belgium and Luxembourg to the north, Germany to the north east, Switzerland to the east, Italy and Monaco to the south east, Andorra and Spain to the south, and a maritime border with the United Kingdom to the north west. Its metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea. Its overseas territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, the French West Indies, and many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean. Its eighteen integral regions (five of which are overseas) span a combined area of 643,801 km2 (248,573 sq mi) and have a total population of 68.4 million as of January 2024[update].[5][8] France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre; other major urban areas include Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Nantes and Nice.
Metropolitan France was settled during the Iron Age by Celtic tribes known as Gauls before Rome annexed the area in 51 BC, leading to a distinct Gallo-Roman culture. In the Early Middle Ages, the Germanic Franks formed the Kingdom of Francia, which became the heartland of the Carolingian Empire. The Treaty of Verdun of 843 partitioned the empire, with West Francia evolving into the Kingdom of France. In the High Middle Ages, France was a powerful but decentralized feudal kingdom, but from the mid-14th to the mid-15th centuries, France was plunged into a dynastic conflict with England known as the Hundred Years' War. In the 16th century, the French Renaissance saw culture flourish and a French colonial empire rise.[14] Internally, France was dominated by the conflict with the House of Habsburg and the French Wars of Religion between Catholics and Huguenots. France was successful in the Thirty Years' War and further increased its influence during the reign of Louis XIV.[15]
The French Revolution of 1789 overthrew the Ancien Régime and produced the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which expresses the nation's ideals to this day. France reached its political and military zenith in the early 19th century under Napoleon Bonaparte, subjugating part of continental Europe and establishing the First French Empire. The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars significantly shaped the course of European history. The collapse of the empire initiated a period of relative decline, in which France endured a tumultuous succession of governments until the founding of the French Third Republic during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Subsequent decades saw a period of economic prosperity and cultural and scientific flourishing known as the Belle Époque. France was one of the major participants of World War I, from which it emerged victorious at great human and economic cost. It was among the Allied powers of World War II, but it surrendered and was occupied by the Axis in 1940. Following its liberation in 1944, the short-lived Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the defeat in the Algerian War. The current Fifth Republic was formed in 1958 by Charles de Gaulle. Algeria and most French colonies became independent in the 1960s, with the majority retaining close economic and military ties with France.
France retains its centuries-long status as a global centre of art, science, and philosophy. It hosts the third-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is the world's leading tourist destination, receiving over 89 million foreign visitors in 2018.[16] France is a developed country with a high nominal per capita income globally and its advanced economy ranks among the largest in the world. It is a great power in global affairs,[17] being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and an official nuclear-weapon state. France is a founding and leading member of the European Union and the eurozone,[18] as well as a key member of the Group of Seven, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and Francophonie.
- ^ Article II of the Constitution of France (1958)
- ^ "THE LICTOR'S FASCES". 15 December 2022.
- ^ "L'essentiel sur... les immigrés et les étrangers". Insee. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
- ^ Drouhot, Lucas; Simon, Patrick; Tiberj, Vincent (30 March 2023). "La diversité religieuse en France : transmissions intergénérationnelles et pratiques selon les origines" [Religious diversity in France: Intergenerational transmissions and practices according to the origins] (PDF) (official statistics) (in French). National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE). Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 March 2023.
- ^ a b "Field Listing :: Area". The World Factbook. CIA. Archived from the original on 31 January 2014. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ "Surface water and surface water change". Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Retrieved 11 October 2020.
- ^ "France Métropolitaine". INSEE. 2011. Archived from the original on 28 August 2015.
- ^ a b "Bilan démographique 2023 – Composantes de la croissance démographique, France". Insee. 16 January 2023. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
- ^ "Bilan démographique 2023 – Composantes de la croissance démographique, France métropolitaine". Insee. 16 January 2024. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
- ^ a b c d "World Economic Outlook Database, April 2024 Edition. (France)". www.imf.org. International Monetary Fund. 16 April 2024. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
- ^ "Gini coefficient of equivalised disposable income – EU-SILC survey". ec.europa.eu. Eurostat. Retrieved 25 November 2023.
- ^ "Human Development Report 2023/24" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 13 March 2024. p. 288. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
- ^ "Time Zone & Clock Changes in Paris, Île-de-France, France". timeanddate.com. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
- ^ Hargreaves, Alan G., ed. (2005). Memory, Empire, and Postcolonialism: Legacies of French Colonialism. Lexington Books. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-7391-0821-5.
- ^ R.R. Palmer; Joel Colton (1978). A History of the Modern World (5th ed.). p. 161.
- ^ "France posts new tourist record despite Yellow Vest unrest". France 24. 17 May 2019.
- ^ Jack S. Levy, War in the Modern Great Power System, 1495–1975, (2014) p. 29
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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