France
Name
| Official name | French Republic — République française |
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| Former names | The Kingdom of France (to 1792); the First Republic (1792), the First Empire (1804), the Restoration (1814), the July Monarchy (1830), the Second Republic (1848), the Second Empire (1852), the Third Republic (1870), the Vichy State (1940), the Fourth Republic (1946); the Fifth Republic since 1958 |
| Demonym | French |
| Meaning of the name | From the Franks — Francia, the land of the Franks; the Hexagon for the mainland's shape |
| Motto | "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité" — liberty, equality, fraternity; of the Revolution, in the Constitution since 1946 |
Quick facts
| Capital | Paris — the capital since Clovis, 508; about 2.1 million in the city, 12.4 million in the Île-de-France |
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| Largest cities | Paris; Marseille, about 870,000; Lyon; Toulouse; Nice; Nantes; Montpellier; Strasbourg; Bordeaux; Lille |
| Official language | French — by the Constitution since 1992; the regional languages, Breton, Occitan, Alsatian, Corsican, Basque and Catalan, recognized as heritage; the Académie française since 1635 |
| Currency | Euro — EUR, €; since 1999, the notes from 2002, replacing the franc at 6.55957; the CFP franc in the Pacific territories |
| Time zones | Central European Time, UTC+1, summer time UTC+2, in the metropole; twelve time zones in all with the overseas, from UTC−10 in French Polynesia to UTC+12 in Wallis and Futuna — the most of any country |
| Calling code | +33; the overseas departments +590, +594, +596, +262 and +508 |
| Internet domain | .fr — with .re, .gp, .mq, .gf, .yt, .pm, .wf, .tf and .nc for the overseas |
| ISO 3166 codes | FR · FRA · 250 |
| Vehicle registration code | F |
| Driving side | Right |
| Electricity | 230 V, 50 Hz; plug types C and E |
| Founded | The Kingdom of the Franks under Clovis, 481; the Treaty of Verdun, 843; the Capetians, 987; the Republic, 22 September 1792; the Fifth Republic, 4 October 1958 |
| National days | 14 July, Bastille Day — the Fête nationale, for 1789 and the Fête de la Fédération of 1790; 8 May, Victory Day; 11 November, Armistice Day; 1 May, Labor Day; 15 August and 1 November, the church feasts |
| Constitution | 4 October 1958 — the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, de Gaulle's, with the direct election of the president since 1962 and the five-year term since 2000; amended 25 times, the last in March 2024 to enshrine abortion |
| Population | About 68.6 million on 1 January 2026 (INSEE), of whom about 66.4 million in metropolitan France; the second in the European Union |
| Area | 643,801 km² (248,573 sq mi) in all — metropolitan France 551,500 km², the overseas departments and territories the rest; the largest country in the European Union |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | The Tricolore — three vertical bands of blue, white and red, the colors of Paris around the white of the king in the cockade of 1789; adopted by the Convention on 15 February 1794 with the blue at the hoist, the emblem of the Republic under Article 2 of the Constitution, and the pattern of a hundred flags since.Flag of France |
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| National emblem | No coat of arms — the emblem of the Republic since 1953: a fasces with an axe, the oak and olive branches and the initials RF, used on passports and abroad; the Great Seal of 1848 with the seated Liberty |
| National anthem | "La Marseillaise" — written by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle at Strasbourg on 25 April 1792 as the war song of the Army of the Rhine, sung by the volunteers of Marseille into Paris; the anthem by decree of 14 July 1795, restored in 1879, in the Constitution since 1946 |
| National motto | "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité" — by Article 2 of the Constitution |
| National colors | Blue, white and red |
| National personification | Marianne — the woman in the Phrygian cap, the Republic herself, in every town hall and on the stamps; the Gallic rooster the other emblem, on the Republic's gate and the sports shirts |
| National animal | The Gallic rooster — le coq gaulois, from the Latin pun of gallus, Gaul and cock; widely cited, not designated |
| National flower | The iris — the fleur-de-lis of the kings — and the lily; widely cited |
| National dish | None — the gastronomic meal of the French inscribed by UNESCO in 2010; the baguette in 2022; the coq au vin, the pot-au-feu, the cheeses |
| Symbol status | The flag, anthem and motto are fixed by Article 2 of the Constitution; Marianne and the rooster by custom and the state's use; the animal, flower and dishes widely cited |
Geography
| Location | Western Europe — the Hexagon between the Atlantic, the Channel and the Mediterranean, from the Alps and the Pyrenees to the Rhine; Corsica; the overseas in five oceans — Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Réunion, Mayotte, and the territories of the Pacific and the Indian Ocean |
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| Land borders | 2,751 km (1,709 mi) in Europe with eight countries — Spain 646, Belgium 620, Switzerland 525, Italy 476, Germany 451, Luxembourg 69, Andorra 55, Monaco 6 — and 1,296 km overseas, with Brazil 730 and Suriname 556 in French Guiana and Sint Maarten 10 on Saint-Martin |
| Coastline | 3,427 km (2,129 mi) on the metropole — the Channel, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean — about 4,850 km with the overseas |
| Highest point | Mont Blanc, 4,809 m (15,777 ft), on the Italian border — the highest in western Europe; Piton des Neiges on Réunion 3,070 m |
| Lowest point | The Rhône delta in the Camargue, 2 m (7 ft) below sea level |
| Mean elevation | 375 m (1,230 ft) |
| Major rivers | The Loire, 1,012 km, the longest, with the châteaux of its valley; the Seine, 777 km, through Paris to Le Havre; the Rhône, from Switzerland through Lyon to the Camargue; the Garonne to the Gironde; the Rhine on the German border; the Dordogne; the Meuse |
| Terrain | The Paris basin and the plains of the north and west; the Massif Central; the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Jura and the Vosges; the Rhône valley; the coasts of Brittany and Normandy, the Landes, the Riviera; Corsica's mountains |
| Climate | Oceanic in the west, continental in the east, Mediterranean in the south, alpine in the mountains; tropical in the overseas |
| Natural hazards | Floods — the Seine of 1910 and 2016; storms — Lothar and Martin 1999, Xynthia 2010; heat waves — 2003 with 15,000 dead; wildfires in the south; avalanches; the cyclones and volcanoes of the overseas — Chido on Mayotte, December 2024 |
| Natural resources | Farmland — the largest agricultural producer in the EU; timber; bauxite, iron ore, potash; hydropower; the uranium once mined and the nuclear plants; the world's second-largest exclusive economic zone, 11.7 million km², for the overseas |
| Land use | Agricultural land about 52%; forest about 31% of the metropole |
| National parks | 11 — the Vanoise, the first, 1963; the Écrins, the largest of the Alps; the Pyrenees; the Cévennes; the Mercantour; the Calanques; the Port-Cros islands; Guadeloupe, Réunion and Guiana overseas; the Forests of Champagne and Burgundy, 2019 |
| UNESCO World Heritage | 54 — among the most in the world — from Mont-Saint-Michel, Chartres, Versailles, the Vézelay basilica and the caves of the Vézère (1978) through the banks of the Seine, the Loire Valley, the Canal du Midi and the fortifications of Vauban to the Carnac megaliths (2025); 47 cultural, 6 natural, 1 mixed |
| Administrative divisions | 18 regions since 2016 — 13 in the metropole with Corsica, and Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Réunion and Mayotte overseas; 101 departments; some 34,900 communes, the most of any EU country; the collectivities of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint-Martin, Wallis and Futuna and French Polynesia; New Caledonia sui generis |
People
| Population | About 68.6 million (1 January 2026) — 66.4 million in the metropole, 2.2 million overseas |
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| Population density | About 120 per km² (310 per sq mi) in the metropole — the diagonal of emptiness from the Meuse to the Landes |
| Population growth | About 0.2% a year — births below deaths for the first time in 2025 outside war |
| Median age | About 42 years |
| Life expectancy | About 83 years — women 86, among the highest in the world |
| Fertility rate | About 1.6 births per woman — the highest in the EU for decades, falling since 2010 |
| Urban population | About 82% |
| Adult literacy | About 99% |
| Origin | No ethnic statistics by law — about 10% of residents born abroad, from Algeria, Morocco, Portugal, Tunisia, Italy, Turkey and sub-Saharan Africa; about a third of the population with an immigrant parent or grandparent |
| Languages | French by nearly all; Arabic the most spoken second language; the regional tongues — Alsatian, Occitan, Breton, Corsican, Basque, Catalan, Flemish — in decline; Creoles overseas; English by about 40% |
| Religion | Roman Catholic about 30% practicing or nominal, down from 90% in 1950; no religion about 50%; Muslim about 10%, the largest in western Europe; Protestant about 2%; Jewish about 1%, the largest community in Europe; laïcité, the separation of church and state, since 1905 |
| Human Development Index | 0.920 (2023 data, 2025 report) — very high; about 23rd of 193 |
| Sport | Football — Les Bleus, world champions in 1998 and 2018, and the finals of 2006 and 2022; rugby — the Six Nations and the Top 14; the Tour de France since 1903; tennis at Roland Garros; the Paris Olympics of 1900, 1924 and 2024 and the Winter Games of 2030 to come; Léon Marchand's four golds of 2024; Zidane, Mbappé, Platini |
| Diaspora | About 2.5 million French abroad — in Switzerland, the United States, Britain, Belgium, Germany, Canada and Spain — with their own deputies since 2012 |
Government
| Form of government | Unitary semi-presidential republic under the Constitution of 1958 — the president head of state, elected for five years, twice in a row; the prime minister head of government, appointed by the president and answerable to the National Assembly |
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| President | Emmanuel Macron (Renaissance), since 14 May 2017 — the 25th, the youngest at 39; re-elected 24 April 2022 with 58.5% against Marine Le Pen; born 21 December 1977 at Amiens; a former banker and economy minister; his second and last term ends in May 2027 |
| Prime Minister | Sébastien Lecornu (Renaissance), since 9 September 2025 — the 28th of the Fifth Republic; armed forces minister 2022–2025, born 11 June 1986 at Eaubonne; the fifth prime minister since January 2024 after Attal, Barnier and Bayrou, the last two brought down by the Assembly |
| The crisis of 2024–26 | The dissolution of 9 June 2024 after the European election; the legislative election of 30 June and 7 July 2024 returning no majority — the New Popular Front about 180 seats, the presidential camp about 160, the National Rally and its allies about 140; Barnier censured 4 December 2024, Bayrou defeated on confidence 8 September 2025; Lecornu's first government resigned on 6 October 2025 after fourteen hours, the shortest in the republic's history; reappointed 10 October, he survived two censure motions on 16 October, the far left's by 18 votes, after suspending the pension reform of 2023; the budget of 2026 adopted 2 February 2026 after months of bargaining |
| Parliament | The National Assembly — 577 deputies elected for five years in two rounds, Yaël Braun-Pivet its president; the Senate — 348 senators elected for six years by the grand electors, Gérard Larcher its president; the Constitutional Council |
| The next election | The presidential election due in April 2027, two rounds; the legislative election in June 2027 at the latest; the municipal elections held in March 2026 |
| The 2027 race | Marine Le Pen convicted on 31 March 2025 of embezzling European Parliament funds and banned from office for five years with immediate effect; the Paris Court of Appeal on 7 July 2026 upheld the conviction and reduced the ban to 45 months, 30 suspended and 15 backdated, with an electronic tag, leaving her eligible — she declared her candidacy the same evening, with Jordan Bardella as her prime minister, and appealed to the Court of Cassation, whose ruling is expected in early 2027; Édouard Philippe, Bruno Retailleau, Gabriel Attal and Jean-Luc Mélenchon among the declared and likely candidates |
| Legal system | Civil law — the Napoleonic Code of 1804, the model for half the world; the Court of Cassation, the Council of State and the Constitutional Council; the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg |
| Regions and departments | 18 regions with elected councils; 101 departments with their councils and prefects; the communes with their mayors, 34,900 of them; the president's prefects in each |
| Overseas | The five departments-regions overseas, in the EU with the euro; the collectivities; New Caledonia after the referendums of 2018–21 and the riots of May 2024, the Bougival accord of July 2025 for a "State of New Caledonia" within France; Mayotte after Cyclone Chido; the migration to Mayotte and Guiana |
| European Union | A founder — the Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950, the Treaty of Rome of 1957; the eurozone from 1999; Schengen from 1995; the Parliament at Strasbourg; the EU Council presidency of 2022 |
| NATO | A founder, 4 April 1949 — out of the integrated command under de Gaulle from 1966, back in it in 2009; the nuclear force since 1960, the only one in the EU |
| United Nations | A founder, 24 October 1945; a permanent member of the Security Council; UNESCO and the OECD headquartered in Paris |
| Other memberships | The G7, the G20, the OECD, the Council of Europe at Strasbourg, the Francophonie — 93 members and observers — the WTO |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$3.2 trillion (2025, IMF) — the seventh-largest economy in the world, the second in the EU |
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| GDP per capita | About US$47,000 (2025) |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$65,000 (2025) |
| GDP growth | About 0.8% a year (2024–25); unemployment about 7.5%; inflation about 1% |
| Economy by sector | Services about 70%, industry about 18%, agriculture about 2% |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) |
| Industry | Airbus of Toulouse — the world's largest aircraft maker; the cars of Renault and Stellantis; the trains of Alstom; the nuclear reactors of EDF and Framatome; Dassault; Safran; Michelin; Saint-Gobain; TotalEnergies |
| Luxury and consumer | LVMH, Hermès, Kering, L'Oréal, Chanel — the luxury capital of the world, about a third of the global market; the wines of Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne; the 1,200 cheeses; Danone, Carrefour |
| Tourism | The most visited country in the world — about 100 million foreign visitors a year; Paris, the Riviera, the Alps, the châteaux, Disneyland Paris the most visited attraction in Europe; about 8% of GDP |
| Agriculture | The largest agricultural producer in the EU — wheat, sugar beet, wine, dairy, beef; the Common Agricultural Policy's first beneficiary; the Salon de l'Agriculture |
| Energy | Nuclear power about 65% of electricity from 56 reactors, the highest share in the world; hydropower; wind and solar; among the lowest-carbon grids of the large economies; the Flamanville EPR started 2024 |
| Public finances | A deficit of about 5.4% of GDP in 2025, the highest in the eurozone; public debt about 116% of GDP, above €3.4 trillion — the downgrades of 2024–25; public spending about 57% of GDP, the highest in the OECD; the pension age raised from 62 to 64 in 2023 and the rise suspended in October 2025 |
| Income classification | High income (World Bank); an OECD founder, headquartered in Paris |
Transport & infrastructure
| Main airports | Paris–Charles de Gaulle at Roissy — about 70 million passengers, the second in Europe; Orly; Nice; Lyon; Marseille; Toulouse; Basel–Mulhouse |
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| Airline | Air France, founded 7 October 1933, in the Air France–KLM group since 2004; Transavia; the low-cost carriers |
| Main ports | Marseille-Fos, the largest, and the first in the Mediterranean; Le Havre and Rouen, HAROPA, on the Seine; Dunkirk; Calais, the busiest passenger port in Europe; Nantes–Saint-Nazaire |
| Railways | About 28,000 km (17,400 mi) — the SNCF; the TGV since 27 September 1981, Paris–Lyon, the first high-speed line in Europe, some 2,800 km of high-speed track, the world speed record of 574.8 km/h in 2007; the Paris Métro of 1900 with its 16 lines, the RER, the Grand Paris Express under construction; the Channel Tunnel since 6 May 1994 |
| Roads | About 1.1 million km (680,000 mi) — the densest network in Europe; some 12,000 km of autoroutes, most of them tolled; the Millau Viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world |
| Waterways | About 8,500 km — the Canal du Midi of 1681, the Seine, the Rhône, the Rhine; the Paris–Le Havre barges |
History in dates
| c. 17,000 BC | The paintings of Lascaux |
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| 52 BC | Caesar defeats Vercingetorix at Alesia — Roman Gaul |
| 481 | Clovis king of the Franks; baptized at Reims about 496 |
| 800 | Charlemagne crowned emperor at Rome, 25 December |
| 843 | The Treaty of Verdun — West Francia |
| 987 | Hugh Capet — the Capetians, eight centuries of kings |
| 1337–1453 | The Hundred Years' War; Joan of Arc burned at Rouen, 30 May 1431 |
| 1598 | The Edict of Nantes |
| 1643–1715 | Louis XIV, the Sun King — Versailles |
| 1789 | The Revolution — the Bastille falls, 14 July; the Declaration of the Rights of Man, 26 August |
| 1792 | The First Republic, 22 September; Louis XVI guillotined, 21 January 1793 |
| 1804 | Napoleon crowned emperor, 2 December; the Civil Code |
| 1815 | Waterloo, 18 June |
| 1848 · 1852 | The Second Republic; the Second Empire |
| 1870 | Sedan, 1 September; the Third Republic, 4 September; the Commune of 1871 |
| 1905 | The separation of church and state, 9 December |
| 1914–1918 | The Great War — Verdun, 1916; 1.4 million French dead |
| 1940 | The fall of France, June; de Gaulle's appeal of 18 June; Vichy |
| 1944 | D-Day, 6 June; Paris liberated, 25 August |
| 1946 | The Fourth Republic; women vote, 1945 |
| 1954–1962 | The Algerian War; the Fifth Republic, 4 October 1958; Évian, 18 March 1962 |
| 1968 | May 68 |
| 1981 | François Mitterrand, 10 May; the TGV, 27 September |
| 2002 | The euro; Le Pen in the runoff, 21 April |
| 2015 | The attacks of 7 January and 13 November |
| 2017 | Emmanuel Macron president, 14 May |
| 2018–2019 | The Yellow Vests |
| 2019 | Notre-Dame burns, 15 April |
| 2024 | The dissolution, 9 June; the Paris Olympics, 26 July; Notre-Dame reopened, 7 December |
| 2025 | Le Pen convicted, 31 March; Lecornu prime minister, 9 September |
| 2026 | The budget, 2 February; the Le Pen appeal, 7 July |
| 2027 | The presidential election due, April |
Records & firsts
| The most visited country in the world | About 100 million a year |
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| The most time zones | Twelve, with the overseas |
| The largest country in the EU | 643,801 km² with the overseas |
| The second-largest maritime zone on earth | 11.7 million km² |
| The highest peak in western Europe | Mont Blanc |
| The first high-speed railway in Europe | The TGV, 1981 — and the rail speed record, 574.8 km/h |
| The most nuclear electricity | About 65% of the grid |
| The luxury capital | About a third of the world's market |
| The tallest bridge | The Millau Viaduct, 343 m |
| The Rights of Man | 26 August 1789 |
| The Napoleonic Code | The law of half the world, 1804 |
| The Tour de France | Since 1903 |
| The most Nobel Prizes in literature | Sixteen laureates |
| The Académie française | Guarding the language since 1635 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of France?
The French Republic — République française — the fifth of that name, under the constitution of 4 October 1958. The name comes from the Franks, the Germanic people whose kings, Clovis and Charlemagne among them, ruled the old Roman Gaul; Francia, "the land of the Franks," became France by the 10th century, and the French speak of the Hexagon for the mainland's six-sided shape. The kingdom of the Capetians, the Valois and the Bourbons ended in the Revolution of 1789, and the republics, empires and monarchies since have kept the name.
What is the capital of France?
Paris, on the Seine — the Roman Lutetia, the capital of the Franks from Clovis in 508 and of France in all but a few years since, with about 2.1 million people in the city and 12.4 million in the Île-de-France region, a fifth of the country; the most visited city in the world, with the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower and Notre-Dame, reopened in December 2024 after the fire. Marseille on the Mediterranean, the oldest city, founded by the Greeks in 600 BC, is the second; Lyon, Toulouse, Nice, Nantes, Montpellier, Strasbourg, Bordeaux and Lille follow.
How big is France, and how many people live there?
About 643,801 km² (248,573 sq mi) in all — the largest country in the European Union — of which metropolitan France, the Hexagon and Corsica, is 551,500 km², a little smaller than Texas, and the overseas departments and territories in the Caribbean, South America, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific make up the rest, with French Guiana alone larger than Portugal. INSEE counted about 68.6 million people on 1 January 2026, 66.4 million of them in the metropole — the second-largest population in the EU after Germany's, and the largest French-speaking one in the world.
What are the highest and lowest points of France?
Mont Blanc, 4,809 m (15,777 ft), on the Italian border in the Alps — the highest peak in western Europe, first climbed in 1786 — and the Rhône delta in the Camargue, 2 m (7 ft) below sea level. Overseas, La Réunion's Piton des Neiges rises to 3,070 m. The mainland has three great ranges, the Alps, the Pyrenees and the Massif Central, and four great rivers, the Loire, the Seine, the Rhône and the Garonne.
What currency does France use?
The euro (ISO code EUR, €), since 1 January 1999 as a founder of the eurozone, with the notes and coins from 2002 replacing the franc at 6.55957; the CFP franc in French Polynesia, New Caledonia and Wallis and Futuna. Clocks keep Central European Time, UTC+1, with summer time, in the metropole — and France, with its overseas territories, has twelve time zones, more than any other country on earth.
Who governs France?
President Emmanuel Macron, head of state since 14 May 2017 and re-elected in 2022, whose second and last term ends in May 2027; and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, head of government since 9 September 2025 — the fifth prime minister in two years, after the dissolution of June 2024 produced a National Assembly with no majority. His first government, resigning after fourteen hours, was the shortest in the republic's history; reappointed on 10 October 2025, he survived the censure votes by suspending the pension reform and passed the budget of 2026 on 2 February. The presidential election is due in April 2027; Marine Le Pen, whose conviction for embezzlement was upheld on appeal on 7 July 2026 with a reduced ban that leaves her eligible, has declared her candidacy.
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