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Transport
Transport in France
A TGV Sud-Est.
The railway network of France, which stretches 31,840 kilometres (19,784 mi) is the most extensive in Western Europe. It is operated by the SNCF, and high-speed trains include the Thalys, the Eurostar and TGV, which travels at 320 km/h (200 mph) in commercial use. The Eurostar, along with the Eurotunnel Shuttle, connects with the United Kingdom through the Channel Tunnel. Rail connections exist to all other neighbouring countries in Europe, except Andorra. Intra-urban connections are also well developed with both underground services and tramway services complementing bus services.
There are approximately 893,300 kilometres (555,070 mi) of serviceable roadway in France. The Paris region is enveloped with the most dense network of roads and highways that connect it with virtually all parts of the country. French roads also handle substantial international traffic, connecting with cities in neighboring Belgium, Spain, Andorra, Monaco, Switzerland, Germany and Italy. There is no annual registration fee or road tax; however, motorway usage is through tolls except in the vicinity of large communes. The new car market is dominated by domestic brands such as Renault (27% of cars sold in France in 2003), Peugeot (20.1%) and Citroën (13.5%). Over 70% of new cars sold in 2004 had diesel engines, far more than contained petrol or LPG engines. France possesses the world's tallest road bridge: the Millau Viaduct, and has built many important bridges such as the Pont de Normandie.
There are approximately 478 airports in France, including landing fields. The Charles de Gaulle International Airport located in the vicinity of Paris is the largest and busiest airport in the country, handling the vast majority of popular and commercial traffic of the country and connecting Paris with virtually all major cities across the world. Air France is the national carrier airline, although numerous private airline companies provide domestic and international travel services. There are ten major ports in France, the largest of which is in Marseille, which also is the largest bordering the Mediterranean Sea. 14,932 kilometres (9,278 mi) of waterways traverse France including the Canal du Midi which connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean through the Garonne river.
Administrative divisions
Administrative divisions of France, Regions of France, and Departments of France
The 22 regions and 96 departments of metropolitan France includes Corsica (Corse, lower right). Paris area is expanded (inset at left)
France is divided into 26 administrative regions. 22 are in metropolitan France (21 are on the continental part of metropolitan France; one is the territorial collectivity of Corsica), and four are overseas regions. The regions are further subdivided into 100 departments which are numbered (mainly alphabetically). This number is used in postal codes and vehicle number plates amongst others. The 100 departments are subdivided into 341 arrondissements which are, in turn, subdivided into 4,032 cantons. These cantons are then divided into 36,680 communes, which are municipalities with an elected municipal council. There also exist 2,588 intercommunal entities grouping 33,414 of the 36,680 communes (i.e. 91.1% of all the communes). Three communes, Paris, Lyon and Marseille are also subdivided into 45 municipal arrondissements.
The regions, departments and communes are all known as territorial collectivities, meaning they possess local assemblies as well as an executive. Arrondissements and cantons are merely administrative divisions. However, this was not always the case. Until 1940, the arrondissements were also territorial collectivities with an elected assembly, but these were suspended by the Vichy regime and definitely abolished by the Fourth Republic in 1946. Historically, the cantons were also territorial collectivities with their elected assemblies.
Metropolitan regions and departments
Region Departments
Alsace Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin
Aquitaine Dordogne, Gironde, Landes, Lot-et-Garonne, Pyrénées-Atlantiques
Auvergne Allier, Cantal, Haute-Loire, Puy-de-Dôme
Basse-Normandie Calvados, Manche, Orne
Bourgogne Côte-d'Or, Nièvre, Saône-et-Loire, Yonne
Bretagne Côtes-d'Armor, Finistère, Ille-et-Vilaine, Morbihan
Centre Cher, Eure-et-Loir, Indre, Indre-et-Loire, Loiret, Loir-et-Cher
Champagne-Ardenne Ardennes, Aube, Haute-Marne, Marne
Corsica (Corse) Corse-du-Sud, Haute-Corse
Franche-Comté Doubs, Haute-Saône, Jura, Territoire de Belfort
Haute-Normandie Eure, Seine-Maritime
Île-de-France Essonne, Hauts-de-Seine, Paris, Seine-et-Marne, Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne, Val-d'Oise, Yvelines
Languedoc-Roussillon Aude, Gard, Hérault, Lozère, Pyrénées-Orientales
Limousin Corrèze, Creuse, Haute-Vienne
Lorraine Meurthe-et-Moselle, Meuse, Moselle, Vosges
Midi-Pyrénées Ariège, Aveyron, Gers, Haute-Garonne, Hautes-Pyrénées, Lot, Tarn, Tarn-et-Garonne
Nord-Pas-de-Calais Nord, Pas-de-Calais
Pays de la Loire Loire-Atlantique, Maine-et-Loire, Mayenne, Sarthe, Vendée
Picardie Aisne, Oise, Somme
Poitou-Charentes Charente, Charente-Maritime, Deux-Sèvres, Vienne
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Alpes-Maritimes, Bouches-du-Rhône, Hautes-Alpes, Var, Vaucluse
Rhône-Alpes Ain, Ardèche, Drôme, Haute-Savoie, Isère, Loire, Rhône, Savoie
Overseas regions/departments, collectivities, and territories
Overseas departments and territories of France
The lands making up the French Republic, shown at the same geographic scale.
Among the 100 departments of France, four (French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Réunion) are found in the overseas regions and are simultaneously overseas regions and overseas departments and are an integral part of France (and the European Union) and thus enjoy a status similar to metropolitan departments.
In addition to the 26 regions and 100 departments, the French Republic also has six overseas collectivities (French Polynesia, Mayotte, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and Wallis and Futuna), one sui generis collectivity (New Caledonia), one overseas territory (French Southern and Antarctic Lands), and one island possession in the Pacific Ocean (Clipperton Island). Overseas collectivities and territories form part of the French Republic, but do not form part of the European Union or its fiscal area. The Pacific territories continue to use the Pacific franc whose value is linked to that of the euro. In contrast, the four overseas regions used the French franc and now use the euro.
Economy
Economy of France and Energy in France
Further information: List of French companies and Economic history of France
The first completed Airbus A380 at the “A380 Reveal” event in Toulouse on 18 January 2005. Airbus is a symbol of the globalisation of the French and European economy
A member of the G8 group of leading industrialised countries, it is ranked as the sixth largest economy by nominal GDP. France joined 11 other EU members to launch the euro on 1 January 1999, with euro coins and banknotes completely replacing the French franc (?) in early 2002.
France's economy combines extensive private enterprise (nearly 2.5 million companies registered) with substantial (though declining) government intervention (see dirigisme). The government retains considerable influence over key segments of infrastructure sectors, with majority ownership of railway, electricity, aircraft, and telecommunications firms. It has been gradually relaxing its control over these sectors since the early 1990s. The government is slowly selling off holdings in France Télécom, Air France, as well as the insurance, banking, and defence industries. France has an important aerospace industry led by the European consortium Airbus, and has its own national spaceport, the Centre Spatial Guyanais.
France relies heavily on nuclear power (Golfech reactor).
According to the OECD, in 2004 France was the world's fifth-largest exporter and the fourth-largest importer of manufactured goods. In 2003, France was the 2nd-largest recipient of foreign direct investment among OECD countries at $47 billion, ranking behind Luxembourg (where foreign direct investment was essentially monetary transfers to banks located in that country) but above the United States ($39.9 billion), the United Kingdom ($14.6 billion), Germany ($12.9 billion), or Japan ($6.3 billion). In the same year, French companies invested $57.3 billion outside of France, ranking France as the second most important outward direct investor in the OECD, behind the United States ($173.8 billion) , and ahead of the United Kingdom ($55.3 billion), Japan ($28.8 billion) and Germany ($2.6 billion).
France is also the most energy independent Western country due to heavy investment in nuclear power (Nuclear power in France), which also makes France the smallest producer of carbon dioxide among the seven most industrialized countries in the world. As a result of large investments in nuclear technology, most of the electricity produced in the country is generated by 59 nuclear power plants (78% in 2006, up from only 8% in 1973, 24% in 1980, and 75% in 1990). In this context, renewable energies (see the power cooperative Enercoop) are having difficulties taking off the ground.
Large tracts of fertile land, the application of modern technology, and EU subsidies have combined to make France the leading agricultural producer and exporter in Europe. Wheat, poultry, dairy, beef, and pork, as well as an internationally recognised foodstuff and wine industry are primary French agricultural exports. EU agriculture subsidies to France total almost $14 billion.
Since the end of the Second World War the government made efforts to integrate more and more with Germany, both economically and politically. Today the two countries form what is often referred to as the “core” countries in favour of greater integration of the European Union.
Labour market
La Défense, Paris is the heart of the French economy.
The French GDP per capita is similar the GDP per capita of other comparable European countries such as Germany and the United Kingdom, and is 30% below the US level. GDP per capita is determined by (i) productivity per hour worked, which in France is the highest of the G8 countries in 2005, according to the OECD, (ii) the number of hours worked, which is one the lowest of developed countries, and (iii) the employment rate. France has one of the lowest 15–64 years employment rates of the OECD countries: in 2004, only 68.8% of the French population aged 15–64 years were in employment, compared to 80.0% in Japan, 78.9% in the UK, 77.2% in the US, and 71.0% in Germany. This gap is due to the very low employment rates at both age extremes: the employment rate of people aged 55–64 was 38,3% in 2007, compared to 46,6% in the EU15; for the 15–24 years old, the employment rate was 31,5% in 2007, compared to 37,2% in EU25. These low employment rates are explained by the high minimum wages which prevent low productivity workers – such as young people – from easily entering the labour market, ineffective university curricula that fail to prepare students adequately for the labour market, and, concerning the older workers, restrictive legislation on work and incentives for premature retirement.
The unemployment rate has recently decreased from 9.0% in 2006 to 7.2% in 2008 but remains one of the highest in Europe. Shorter working hours and the reluctance to reform the labour market are mentioned as weak spots of the French economy in the view of the right, when the left mentions the lack of government policies fostering social justice. Many liberal economists[who?] have stressed repeatedly over the years that the main issue of the French economy is an issue of structural reforms, in order to increase the size of the working population in the overall population, reduce the taxes' level and the administrative burden. Keynesian economists have different answers to the unemployment issue, and their theories led to the 35-hour workweek law in the early 2000s, which turned out to be failure in reducing unemployment. Afterwards, between 2004 and 2008, the Government made some supply-oriented reforms to combat unemployment but met with fierce resistance, especially with the contrat nouvelle embauche and the contrat première embauche which both were eventually repealed. The current Government is experiencing the Revenu de solidarité active.
Tourism
Tourism in France
The Palace of Versailles is one of the most popular tourist destinations in France.
With 81.9 million foreign tourists in 2007, France is ranked as the first tourist destination in the world, ahead of Spain (58.5 million in 2006) and the United States (51.1 million in 2006). This 81.9 million figure excludes people staying less than 24 hours in France, such as northern Europeans crossing France on their way to Spain or Italy during the Summer. France features cities of high cultural interest (Paris being the foremost), beaches and seaside resorts, ski resorts, and rural regions that many enjoy for their beauty and tranquillity (green tourism). Aside from casual tourism France attracts a lot of religious pilgrims to Lourdes, a town in the Hautes-Pyrénées département, that hosts a few million tourists a year. Popular tourist sites include: (according to a 2003 ranking visitors per year): Eiffel Tower (6.2 million), Louvre Museum (5.7 million), Palace of Versailles (2.8 million), Musée d'Orsay (2.1 million), Arc de Triomphe (1.2 million), Centre Pompidou (1.2 million), Mont-Saint-Michel (1 million), Château de Chambord (711,000), Sainte-Chapelle (683,000), Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg (549,000), Puy de Dôme (500,000), Musée Picasso (441,000), Carcassonne (362,000).
Demography
Demography of France, Languages of France, and French people
Population density in the French Republic at the 1999 census.
Metropolitan French cities with over 100,000 inhabitants
With an estimated population of 65.1 million people, France is the 19th most populous country in the world. France's largest cities are Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Toulouse, Nice, and Nantes.
In 2003, France's natural population growth (excluding immigration) was responsible for almost all natural population growth in the European Union. In 2004, population growth was 0.68% and then in 2005 birth and fertility rates continued to increase. The natural increase of births over deaths rose to 299,800 in 2006. The total fertility rate rose to 2.02 in 2008, from 1.88 in 2002.
France's legacy: a map of the Francophone world native language administrative language secondary or non-official language francophone minorities
In 2004, a total of 140,033 people immigrated to France. Of them, 90,250 were from Africa and 13,710 from Europe. In 2005, immigration level fell slightly to 135,890. France is an ethnically diverse nation. According to the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies, it has an estimated 4.9 million foreign-born immigrants, of which 2 million have acquired French citizenship. France is the leading asylum destination in Western Europe with an estimated 50,000 applications in 2005 (a 15% decrease from 2004). The European Union allows free movement between the member states. While Ireland did not impose restrictions, France put in place controls to curb Eastern European migration.
A perennial political issue concerns rural depopulation. Over the period 1960-1999 fifteen rural départements experienced a decline in population. In the most extreme case, the population of Creuse fell by 24%.
According to Article 2 of the Constitution, French is the sole official language of France since 1992. This makes France the only Western European nation (excluding microstates) to have only one officially recognised language. However, 77 regional languages are also spoken, in metropolitan France as well as in the overseas departments and territories. Until recently, the French government and state school system discouraged the use of any of these languages, but they are now taught to varying degrees at some schools. Other languages, such as Portuguese, Italian, Maghrebi Arabic and several Berber languages are spoken by immigrants..
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