About-France.com A visitor's guide to France
About France.com - the France travel portal .   A website about France and life in France
Photo Steve Cadman - licence CC

Map of France
Map of France

Sarkozy - photo Remi Jouan - licence GNU

  President Sarkozy  - Photo  R Jouan - CC

Old Nice

   The old town at Nice



France for Dutch visitors:

Ga naar Frankrijk TopList en stem voor deze site!!!

France key data: essential facts and figures

 Site index: About-France.com - accueil en français
France in general Main travel pages Living and leisure Other chapters.
About-France.com - home Travel to France (air / sea) Living in France Hotels in France
The regions of France Driving in France - road travel Tourist attractions in France Holiday cottages in France
Preparing a trip French rail travel Guide to French wines Studying in France
France facts and figures Visiting Paris Guide to French cheese Shopping in France
Full site index Maps of France The markets of France Doctors and emergencies

Key data for France, with selected international comparisons

Definition
: Technically speaking, "France" includes a number of overseas departments and territories (known in French as the DOM-TOMs). This guide is concerned with Metropolitan France, which means continental France, together with the offshore islands, including Corsica.

Government:
France is a republic; the head of the executive is the President, elected by universal suffrage, currently Nicolas Sarkozy. The President determines policy with the aid of his Council of Ministers (Conseil des ministres). Ministers cannot sit in parliament, and if an elected member of parliament (député) is appointed minister, he or she has to hand over parliamentary duties to his / her deputy (adjoint). Since each elected member has a deputy, by-elections are unusual in France.  The lower and principal house of parliament is the Assemblée nationale, or national assembly; the second chamber is the Sénat or Senate. Députés are elected by universal suffrage, in general elections (élections législatives) that take place every five years. Senators are elected by "grand electors", who are mostly other local elected representatives. The electoral system for presidential and parliamentary elections involves two rounds; a candidate can be elected on the first round by obtaining an absolute majority of votes cast. The second round is a runoff between the leading two candidates from round one (presidential election), or two or more candidates (parliamentary elections). Click here for further information on the French Constitution and political system

Surface area:  547,030 sq km, of which 545,630 sq km of land and 1,400 sq km of rivers and lakes.
This is about double the surface area of the United Kingdom, and just over four times the surface area of England.

Local administration:
Metropolitan France is administered as 22 regions, 96 "départements" or departments, and some 36,000 "communes". See maps of regions and departments.  Each region is administered by a Regional council (Conseil régional), and each department is administered by a county council (Conseil Général). The central government is represented in each department and region by a Prefect (préfet), with powers over the police and public security. The Prefect's other main role is to make sure that local authorities administer their area in compliance with national law.
   Prefects are appointed by the President, regional councils are elected by universal suffrage every six years, involving a complex two-round semi-proportional voting system.  Departmental councils, conseils généraux, are elected by universal suffrage every six years, in elections known as canton elections  (élections cantonales). Communes are run by municipal councils (conseils municipaux) elected every six years by universal suffrage.

Population: 60,876,136 total estimated population of  Metropolitan France, mid 2007
This is just a few thousand more than the population of the United Kingdom.

Population density: 110 people per sq km
This is just less than the EU average of 112 /km², and less than half the density of the UK (246 p/km²)

Per capita GDP for France: 2007  27,800 €
Compare to: Ireland 35,700 €, Belgium 30,200 €, UK 29,400 €,  Germany 28,200 €,
Spain 25,400 €, Portugal 18,200 €.  Source: Eurostat, April 2007.

The French economy:
Economic growth 2007:

France:  +2%
Compare to: Ireland +5% , Belgium +2.2%, UK +2.9%,  Germany +1.8% ,
Spain + 3.8%, Portugal +1.8% .  European union average: +2.8%    Source: IMF estimates, 2007

Inflation 2007:
France:  + 1.7 %
Compare to: Ireland +2.5% , Belgium +1.9%, UK +2.3%,  Germany +2.0 % ,
Spain + 2.6 %, Portugal +2.5 % .  European union average: +2.2%  Source: IMF estimates, 2007

Unemployment:
France:  8.6 % (and falling)
Compare to: Ireland +4% , Belgium 7.2%, UK +5.4%,  Germany 8.8 % ,
Spain + 8.0 %, Portugal +7.9 % .  European union average: +6.9%  Source: Eurostat, for June 2007.

Employment by sector:
France: Agriculture: 4.1%,  industry: 24.4%,  services: 71.5% (1999)
Compare with :
U.K.: Agriculture: 1.4%,  industry: 18.2%, services: 80.4%  (2006) . Source: CIA world factbook.

To contact this website, send an email to info "at"  about-france.com (Replace "at" by the standard symbol, and remove all spaces. This coding is a simple anti-spam measure)



add to Furl    Furl
add to del.icio.us    del.icio.us -
add to technorati    Technorati -
add to Blinklist    BlinkList -
add to Digg     Digg
add to Google    Google -
add to stumbleupon    StumbleUpon
add to My Yahoo    My Yahoo

 
Copyright notice: Website and text © About-France.com 2008   except where otherwise indicated.