France

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This article is about the country. For other uses, see France (disambiguation).

French Republic
Rpublique franaise (French)

Flag National emblem

Motto: "Libert, galit, fraternit"

"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"

Anthem: "La Marseillaise"

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Location of metropolitan France (dark green)

in Europe (green & dark grey)
in the European Union (green)
 Territory of the French Republic (red)
Claimed territory (Adlie Land; hatched)

Capital Paris
and largest city 4851.4N 221.05E

Official language French[I]

and national language

Nationality
89.4% French

4.4% French (by

acquisition)

6.2% Foreigners

8.9% Immigrants[1]

Religion
63-66% Christian

7-9% Muslim

0.5-0.75% Buddhist

0.5-0.75% Jewish

0.5-1.0% other

23-28% none[2]

Demonym French

Government Unitarysemi-presidentialrepublic

President Emmanuel Macron

Prime Minister douard Philippe
President of the Senate Grard Larcher
 President of the National Claude Bartolone
Assembly

Legislature Parliament

Upper house Senate

Lower house National Assembly

Establishment
Francia unified 486
Treaty of Verdun [II]
August 843
Republic established 22 September 1792
Founded the EEC[III] 1 January 1958
Current constitution[IV] 4 October 1958

Area
Total 643,801 km2(248,573 sq mi)[V][3]
(41st)
Metropolitan France (IGN) 551,695 km2[VI](50th)
213,010 sq mi
Metropolitan France (Cadastr 543,940.9 km2[VII][4](50th)
e) 210,026 sq mi

Population
Total 2017 estimate 66,991,000[5] (20th)
Metropolitan France Januray 64,860,000[5] (22nd)
2017 estimate
Density 116/km2(300.4/sq mi)[VIII](89th)

GDP (PPP) 2015 estimate

Total $2.647 trillion (10th)
Per capita $41,181[6] (24th)

GDP (nominal) 2017 estimate

Total $2.420 trillion (7th)

Gini (2013) 30.1[7]

medium

HDI (2015) 0.897[8]

very high 21st

Currency
Euro (EUR)[IX]
 CFP franc (XPF)[X]

Time zone CET[XI] (UTC+1)

Summer (DST) CEST[XII] (UTC+2)

Date format dd/mm/yyyy

Drives on the right

Calling code +33[XIII]

ISO 3166 code FR

Internet TLD .fr[XIV]

France (French: [f s]), officially the French Republic (Rpublique franaise [epyblik f sz]), is a
country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories.
[XV]
The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to
the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. Overseas
France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in
the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres (248,573 sq mi)
[3]
and had a total population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary semi-
presidential republic with the capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and
commercial centre. Other major urban
centres include Marseille[XVI], Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse and Bordeaux.
During the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people.
The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, when
the Germanic Franks conquered the region and formed the Kingdom of France. France emerged as
a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years' War (1337 to
1453) strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French
culture flourished and a global colonial empire was established, which by the 20th century would be
the second largest in the world.[9] The 16th century was dominated by religious civil
wars between Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots). France became Europe's dominant cultural,
political, and military power under Louis XIV.[10] In the late 18th century, the French
Revolution overthrew the absolute monarchy, established one of modern history's earliest republics,
and saw the drafting of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which expresses the
nation's ideals to this day.
In the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose
subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the
Empire, France endured a tumultuous succession of governments culminating with the
establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. France was a major participant in the First
World War, from which it emerged victorious, and was one of the Allied Powers in the Second World
War, but came under occupation by the Axis Powers in 1940. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth
Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War. The Fifth Republic,
led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the
other colonies became independent in the 1960s and typically retained close economic and military
connections with France.
France has long been a global centre of art, science, and philosophy. It hosts Europe's fourth-
largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million
foreign tourists annually, the most of any country in the world.[11] France is a developed country with
the world's sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP[12] and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity.
[13]
In terms of aggregate household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. [14] France performs well
in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, and human development.[15]
[16]
France remains a great power in the world,[17] being one of the five permanent members of the
United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is
a leading member state of the European Union and the Eurozone.[18] It is also a member of the Group
of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and La Francophonie.

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