France

"French Republic" and "La France" redirect here. For preceding republics, see French Republics. For other uses, see France (disambiguation) and Lafrance (disambiguation).

French Republic
République française (French)
Motto: "Liberté, égalité, fraternité"
("Liberty, Equality, Fraternity")
Anthem: "La Marseillaise"
Diplomatic emblem
Location of France (blue or dark green)

– in Europe (green & dark grey)
– in the European Union (green)

Capital
and largest city
Paris
48°51′N 2°21′E / 48.850°N 2.350°E / 48.850; 2.350
Official language
and national language		French[II]
Nationality (2021)[3]
Religion
(2021)[4]
Demonym(s)French
GovernmentUnitary semi-presidential republic
• President
Emmanuel Macron
Michel Barnier
Gérard Larcher
Yaël Braun-Pivet
LegislatureParliament
• Upper house
Senate
• Lower house
National Assembly
Establishment
10 August 843
22 September 1792
4 October 1958
Area
• Total
672,051 km2 (259,480 sq mi)Includes Metropolitan France and Overseas France, excludes Terre Adelie [6] (43rd)
• Water (%)
0.86[5]
• Metropolitan France (IGN)
551,695 km2 (213,011 sq mi)[III] (50th)
• Metropolitan France (Cadastre)
543,940.9 km2 (210,016.8 sq mi)[IV][7] (50th)
Population
• January 2024 estimate
Neutral increase 68,373,433[8] (20th)
• Density
106.20274/km2 (106th)
• Metropolitan France, estimate as of January 2024
Neutral increase 66,142,961[9] (23rd)
• Density
122/km2 (316.0/sq mi) (89th)
GDP (PPP)2024 estimate
• Total
Increase $4.359 trillion[10] (10th)
• Per capita
Increase $65,940[10] (26th)
GDP (nominal)2024 estimate
• Total
Increase $3.174 trillion[10] (7th)
• Per capita
Increase $48,011[10] (23rd)
Gini (2022)Negative increase 29.8[11]
low inequality
HDI (2022)Steady 0.910[12]
very high (28th)
Currency
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET[VII])
• Summer (DST)
UTC+2 (CEST)
Calling code+33[VIII]
ISO 3166 codeFR
Internet TLD.fr[IX]
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. Its overseas regions and 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, 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 northeast, Switzerland to the east, Italy and Monaco to the southeast, Andorra and Spain to the south, and a maritime border with the United Kingdom to the northwest. 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 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.[13][8] France is a semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre.

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 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 collapse of the empire initiated a period of relative decline, in which France endured the Bourbon Restoration until the founding of the French Second Republic which was succeeded by the Second French Empire upon Napoleon III's takeover. His empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. This led to the establishment of the Third French Republic, and 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 Allies of World War II, but it surrendered and was occupied 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 fourth-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is the world's leading tourist destination, receiving 100 million foreign visitors in 2023.[16] A developed country, France has a high nominal per capita income globally, and its advanced economy ranks among the largest in the world. It is a great power,[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 member of the Group of Seven, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and Francophonie.

  1. ^ Article II of the Constitution of France (1958)
  2. ^ "THE LICTOR'S FASCES". 15 December 2022. Archived from the original on 7 April 2024. Retrieved 18 May 2024.
  3. ^ "L'essentiel sur... les immigrés et les étrangers". Insee. Archived from the original on 26 June 2019. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
  4. ^ "Etat des lieux de la laïcité en France - 2021" (PDF) (official statistics) (in French). Observatoire de la laïcité, Government of France. p. 37. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 January 2024.
  5. ^ "Surface water and surface water change". Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Archived from the original on 24 March 2021. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  6. ^ "Field Listing :: Area". Comparateur de territoire. IGN. Retrieved 19 November 2024. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  7. ^ "France Métropolitaine". INSEE. 2011. Archived from the original on 28 August 2015.
  8. ^ a b "Bilan démographique 2023 – Composantes de la croissance démographique, France". Insee. 16 January 2023. Archived from the original on 18 January 2024. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
  9. ^ "Bilan démographique 2023 – Composantes de la croissance démographique, France métropolitaine". Insee. 16 January 2024. Archived from the original on 18 January 2024. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
  10. ^ a b c d "World Economic Outlook Database, October 2024 Edition. (France)". www.imf.org. International Monetary Fund. 22 October 2024. Retrieved 22 October 2024.
  11. ^ "Gini coefficient of equivalised disposable income – EU-SILC survey". ec.europa.eu. Eurostat. Archived from the original on 9 October 2020. Retrieved 25 November 2023.
  12. ^ "Human Development Report 2023/24" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 13 March 2024. p. 288. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 March 2024. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  13. ^ "Field Listing :: Area". The World Factbook. CIA. Archived from the original on 31 January 2014. Retrieved 1 November 2015. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  14. ^ Hargreaves, Alan G., ed. (2005). Memory, Empire, and Postcolonialism: Legacies of French Colonialism. Lexington Books. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-7391-0821-5.
  15. ^ R.R. Palmer; Joel Colton (1978). A History of the Modern World (5th ed.). p. 161.
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference tourism.stat was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Jack S. Levy, War in the Modern Great Power System, 1495–1975, (2014) p. 29
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference superficy was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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