France

Profile of France

AREA

550,000 sq. km

Largest country in Western Europe (almost one fifth of the total area of the European Union), with a vast maritime zone (exclusive economic zone extending over 11 million sq. km).

RELIEF

• Plains cover two thirds of the total area.
• Principal mountain ranges: the Alps (of which the highest peak, Mont Blanc, rising to 4,807 metres, is the highest mountain in Western Europe), Pyrénées, Jura, Ardennes, Massif Central and Vosges.
• Coastline: Bordered by four seas (North Sea, Channel, Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean), France has 5,500 km of coastline.

CLIMAT

Three types:

• Oceanic (in the west)
• Mediterranean (in the south)
• Continental (in central and eastern France)

ENVIRONMENT

Farms and forests cover 48 million hectares, i.e. 82% of the total area of metropolitan France.

Some 26% of French territory is covered by forests, ranking France third in the European Union in forest land, behind Sweden and Finland.

France boasts 136 different kinds of trees - exceptional for a European country - and the number of large animals is on the rise: in 20 years, the deer population has doubled and the number of roe deer has tripled.

In order to conserve and develop France's natural heritage, the government has established:

• 7 national parks,
• 132 nature reserves,
• 463 designated areas for protected species,
• 389 protected coastal areas,
• France also has 35 regional nature parks covering more than 7% of the country.

  22.11 billion euros are allocated to the protection of the environment - 378 euros per inhabitant. Three quarters of this goes on waste water management and waste disposal.
  
  France is party to many international treaties and conventions concerning the environment, among them United Nations agreements on climate, biodiversity and desertification.

  www.environnement.gouv.fr

POPULATION

60.7 million inhabitants (2001)

Density: 107 inhabitants per sq. km

France has 52 urban areas with over 150,000 inhabitants.

The five largest are:

1. Paris (9,8 million in 2000)
2. Lyon (1,4 million in 2000)
3. Marseille-Aix-en-Provence (1,4 million in 2000)
4. Lille (1,1 million in 2000)
5. Toulouse (0,9 million in 2000)

ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION

The French Republic comprises:

• metropolitan France, divided into 22 regions and subdivided into 96 departments,
• along with four overseas departments (DOM) - Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane (French Guiana) and Réunion,
• it also includes four overseas territories (TOM) - French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna and the French Southern and Antarctic Territories,
• and "territorial units" with a special status, Mayotte and St Pierre and Miquelon.

  www.outre-mer.gouv.fr