{ "Introduction": { "Background": { "text": "
France today is one of the most modern countries in the world and is a leader among European nations. It plays an influential global role as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, NATO, the G-7, the G-20, the EU, and other multilateral organizations. France rejoined NATO's integrated military command structure in 2009, reversing DE GAULLE's 1966 decision to withdraw French forces from NATO. Since 1958, it has constructed a hybrid presidential-parliamentary governing system resistant to the instabilities experienced in earlier, more purely parliamentary administrations. In recent decades, its reconciliation and cooperation with Germany have proved central to the economic integration of Europe, including the introduction of a common currency, the euro, in January 1999. In the early 21st century, five French overseas entities - French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, and Reunion - became French regions and were made part of France proper.
" } }, "Geography": { "Location": { "text": "metropolitan France: Western Europe, bordering the Bay of Biscay and English Channel, between Belgium and Spain, southeast of the UK; bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Italy and Spain;
French Guiana: Northern South America, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Brazil and Suriname;
Guadeloupe: Caribbean, islands between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, southeast of Puerto Rico;
Martinique: Caribbean, island between the Caribbean Sea and North Atlantic Ocean, north of Trinidad and Tobago;
Mayotte: Southern Indian Ocean, island in the Mozambique Channel, about halfway between northern Madagascar and northern Mozambique;
Reunion: Southern Africa, island in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar
" }, "Geographic coordinates": { "text": "metropolitan France: 46 00 N, 2 00 E;
French Guiana: 4 00 N, 53 00 W;
Guadeloupe: 16 15 N, 61 35 W;
Martinique: 14 40 N, 61 00 W;
Mayotte: 12 50 S, 45 10 E;
Reunion: 21 06 S, 55 36 E
" }, "Map references": { "text": "metropolitan France: Europe;
French Guiana: South America;
Guadeloupe: Central America and the Caribbean;
Martinique: Central America and the Caribbean;
Mayotte: Africa;
Reunion: World
" }, "Area": { "total": { "text": "643,801 sq km ; 551,500 sq km (metropolitan France)" }, "land": { "text": "640,427 sq km ; 549,970 sq km (metropolitan France)" }, "water": { "text": "3,374 sq km ; 1,530 sq km (metropolitan France)" }, "note": "note: the first numbers include the overseas regions of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, and Reunion" }, "Area - comparative": { "text": "slightly more than four times the size of Georgia; slightly less than the size of Texas" }, "Land boundaries": { "total": { "text": "3,956 km" }, "border countries": { "text": "Andorra 55 km; Belgium 556 km; Germany 418 km; Italy 476 km; Luxembourg 69 km; Monaco 6 km; Spain 646 km; Switzerland 525 km" }, "metropolitan France - total": { "text": "2751 km" }, "French Guiana - total": { "text": "1205 km" } }, "Coastline": { "text": "4,853 km", "note": "metropolitan France: 3,427 km" }, "Maritime claims": { "territorial sea": { "text": "12 nm" }, "contiguous zone": { "text": "24 nm" }, "exclusive economic zone": { "text": "200 nm (does not apply to the Mediterranean Sea)" }, "continental shelf": { "text": "200m depth or to the depth of exploitation" } }, "Climate": { "text": "metropolitan France: generally cool winters and mild summers, but mild winters and hot summers along the Mediterranean; occasional strong, cold, dry, north-to-northwesterly wind known as the mistral;
French Guiana: tropical; hot, humid; little seasonal temperature variation;
Guadeloupe and Martinique: subtropical tempered by trade winds; moderately high humidity; rainy season (June to October); vulnerable to devastating cyclones (hurricanes) every eight years on average;
Mayotte: tropical; marine; hot, humid, rainy season during northeastern monsoon (November to May); dry season is cooler (May to November);
Reunion: tropical, but temperature moderates with elevation; cool and dry (May to November), hot and rainy (November to April)
" }, "Terrain": { "text": "metropolitan France: mostly flat plains or gently rolling hills in north and west; remainder is mountainous, especially Pyrenees in south, Alps in east;
French Guiana: low-lying coastal plains rising to hills and small mountains;
Guadeloupe: Basse-Terre is volcanic in origin with interior mountains; Grande-Terre is low limestone formation; most of the seven other islands are volcanic in origin;
Martinique: mountainous with indented coastline; dormant volcano;
Mayotte: generally undulating, with deep ravines and ancient volcanic peaks;
Reunion: mostly rugged and mountainous; fertile lowlands along coast
" }, "Elevation": { "highest point": { "text": "Mont Blanc 4,810" }, "lowest point": { "text": "Rhone River delta -2 m" }, "mean elevation": { "text": "375 m" }, "note": "note: to assess the possible effects of climate change on the ice and snow cap of Mont Blanc, its surface and peak have been extensively measured in recent years; these new peak measurements have exceeded the traditional height of 4,807 m and have varied between 4,808 m and 4,811 m; the actual rock summit is 4,792 m and is 40 m away from the ice-covered summit" }, "Natural resources": { "text": "metropolitan France: coal, iron ore, bauxite, zinc, uranium, antimony, arsenic, potash, feldspar, fluorspar, gypsum, timber, arable land, fish; French Guiana: gold deposits, petroleum, kaolin, niobium, tantalum, clay" }, "Land use": { "agricultural land": { "text": "52.7% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: arable land": { "text": "arable land: 33.4% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: permanent crops": { "text": "permanent crops: 1.8% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: permanent pasture": { "text": "permanent pasture: 17.5% (2018 est.)" }, "forest": { "text": "29.2% (2018 est.)" }, "other": { "text": "18.1% (2018 est.)" } }, "Irrigated land": { "text": "14,236 sq km (2013)" }, "Major lakes (area sq km)": { "fresh water lake(s)": { "text": "Lake Geneva (shared with Switzerland) - 580 sq km" } }, "Major rivers (by length in km)": { "text": "Rhine (shared with Switzerland [s], Germany, and Netherlands [m]) - 1,233 km; Loire - 1,012 kmmetropolitan France: flooding; avalanches; midwinter windstorms; drought; forest fires in south near the Mediterranean;
overseas departments: hurricanes (cyclones); flooding;
volcanism: Montagne Pelee (1,394 m) on the island of Martinique in the Caribbean is the most active volcano of the Lesser Antilles arc, it last erupted in 1932; a catastrophic eruption in May 1902 destroyed the city of St. Pierre, killing an estimated 30,000 people; La Soufriere (1,467 m) on the island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean last erupted from July 1976 to March 1977; these volcanoes are part of the volcanic island arc of the Lesser Antilles that extends from Saba in the north to Grenada in the south
" }, "Geography - note": { "text": "largest West European nation; most major French rivers - the Meuse, Seine, Loire, Charente, Dordogne, and Garonne - flow northward or westward into the Atlantic Ocean, only the Rhone flows southward into the Mediterranean Sea" } }, "People and Society": { "Population": { "text": "68,521,974 (2023 est.)", "note": "note: the above figure is for metropolitan France and five overseas regions; the metropolitan France population is 62,814,233" }, "Nationality": { "noun": { "text": "Frenchman(men), Frenchwoman(women)" }, "adjective": { "text": "French" } }, "Ethnic groups": { "text": "Celtic and Latin with Teutonic, Slavic, North African (Algerian, Moroccan, Tunisian), Indochinese, Basque minorities", "note": "note: overseas departments: Black, White, Mulatto, East Indian, Chinese, Amerindian" }, "Languages": { "Languages": { "text": "French (official) 100%, declining regional dialects and languages (Provencal, Breton, Alsatian, Corsican, Catalan, Basque, Flemish, Occitan, Picard); note - overseas departments: French, Creole patois, Mahorian (a Swahili dialect)" }, "major-language sample(s)": { "text": "metropolitan France: generally cool winters and mild summers, but mild winters and hot summers along the Mediterranean; occasional strong, cold, dry, north-to-northwesterly wind known as the mistral;
French Guiana: tropical; hot, humid; little seasonal temperature variation;
Guadeloupe and Martinique: subtropical tempered by trade winds; moderately high humidity; rainy season (June to October); vulnerable to devastating cyclones (hurricanes) every eight years on average;
Mayotte: tropical; marine; hot, humid, rainy season during northeastern monsoon (November to May); dry season is cooler (May to November);
Reunion: tropical, but temperature moderates with elevation; cool and dry (May to November), hot and rainy (November to April)
" }, "Land use": { "agricultural land": { "text": "52.7% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: arable land": { "text": "arable land: 33.4% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: permanent crops": { "text": "permanent crops: 1.8% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: permanent pasture": { "text": "permanent pasture: 17.5% (2018 est.)" }, "forest": { "text": "29.2% (2018 est.)" }, "other": { "text": "18.1% (2018 est.)" } }, "Urbanization": { "urban population": { "text": "81.8% of total population (2023)" }, "rate of urbanization": { "text": "0.67% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)" } }, "Revenue from forest resources": { "text": "0.03% of GDP (2018 est.)" }, "Revenue from coal": { "text": "0% of GDP (2018 est.)" }, "Air pollutants": { "particulate matter emissions": { "text": "11.64 micrograms per cubic meter (2016 est.)" }, "methane emissions": { "text": "55.99 megatons (2020 est.)" } }, "Waste and recycling": { "municipal solid waste generated annually": { "text": "33.399 million tons (2015 est.)" }, "municipal solid waste recycled annually": { "text": "7,434,617 tons (2015 est.)" }, "percent of municipal solid waste recycled": { "text": "22.3% (2015 est.)" } }, "Major lakes (area sq km)": { "fresh water lake(s)": { "text": "Lake Geneva (shared with Switzerland) - 580 sq km" } }, "Major rivers (by length in km)": { "text": "Rhine (shared with Switzerland [s], Germany, and Netherlands [m]) - 1,233 km; Loire - 1,012 km2022: Emmanuel MACRON reelected in second round; percent of vote in first round - Emmanuel MACRON (LREM) 27.8%, Marine LE PEN (RN) 23.2%, Jean-Luc MELENCHON (LFI) 22%, Eric ZEMMOUR (Reconquete) 7.1%, Valerie PECRESSE (LR) 4.8%, Yannick JADOT (EELV) 4.6%, Jean LASSALLE (Resistons!) 3.1%, Fabien ROUSSEL (PCF) 2.3%, Nicolas DUPONT-AIGNAN (DLF) 2.1%, Anne HIDALGO 1.8%, other 1.2%; percent of vote in second round - MACRON 58.5%, LE PEN 41.5%
2017: Emmanuel MACRON elected president in second round; percent of vote in first round - Emmanuel MACRON (EM) 24%, Marine LE PEN (FN) 21.3%, Francois FILLON (LR) 20%, Jean-Luc MELENCHON (FI) 19.6%, Benoit HAMON (PS) 6.4%, other 8.7%; percent of vote in second round - MACRON 66.1%, LE PEN 33.9%
" } }, "Legislative branch": { "description": { "text": "bicameral Parliament or Parlement consists of:
Madagascar claims the French territories of Bassas da India, Europa Island, Glorioso Islands, and Juan de Nova Island; Comoros claims Mayotte; Mauritius claims Tromelin Island; territorial dispute between Suriname and the French overseas department of French Guiana; France asserts a territorial claim in Antarctica (Adelie Land); France and Vanuatu claim Matthew and Hunter Islands, east of New Caledonia
" }, "Refugees and internally displaced persons": { "refugees (country of origin)": { "text": "55,681 (Afghanistan), 39,091 (Syria), 33,834 (Sri Lanka), 33,148 (Russia), 31,935 (Democratic Republic of the Congo), 24,223 (Sudan), 21,225 (Guinea), 18,008 (Serbia and Kosovo), 17,032 (Turkey), 13,974 (Iraq), 12,286 (Cote d'Ivoire), 11,489 (Eritrea), 11,012 (Cambodia), 10,543 (China), 10,236 (Albania), 10,210 (Somalia), 8,858 (Bangladesh), 8,124 (Mauritania), 8,101 (Mali), 7,991 (Vietnam), 6,913 (Bosnia and Herzegovina), 6,910 (Haiti), 6,808 (Angola), 6,498 (Laos), 6,417 (Armenia), 6,111 (Nigeria), 5,896 (Georgia) (mid-year 2022); 70,570 (Ukraine) (as of 31 December 2022)" }, "stateless persons": { "text": "3,633 (2022)" } }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "metropolitan France: transshipment point for South American cocaine, Southwest Asian heroin, and European synthetics;
French Guiana: small amount of marijuana grown for local consumption; minor transshipment point to Europe;
Martinique: transshipment point for cocaine and marijuana bound for the US and Europe
" } } }