Country Facts - France

The People

Nationality

French (singular and plural)
Ethnic Composition

Celtic and Latin	90%
Teutonicand Slavic	5%
North African, Indochinese, Basque	5%

Religious Composition

Roman Catholic	83 to 88%
Protestant	2%
Jewish	1%
Muslim	5 to 10%
Other and nonaffiliated	4%

Languages Spoken

French 100%, rapidly declining regional dialects and languages (Provencal, Breton, Alsatian, Corsican, Catalan, Basque, Flemish)

Education and Literacy

Education is compulsory between the ages of 6 and 16. The adult literacy rate is 99 percent.

Labor Force

Total: 26.6 million (2001)

By occupation:

Services	71%
Industry	25%
Agriculture	4%

Geography

Land Mass Total

211,209 sq mi (547,030 sq km)
Note: Includes only metropolitan France, but excludes the overseas administrative divisions.

Land

210,668 sq mi (545,630 sq km)

Water

540 sq mi (1,400 sq km)

Land Boundaries

Total: 1,795 mi (2,889 km)

Border countries: Andorra 35 mi (56 km), Belgium 385 mi (620 km), Germany 280 mi (451 km), Italy 303 mi (488 km), Luxembourg 45 mi (73 km), Monaco 2 mi (4 km), Spain 387 mi (623 km), Switzerland 356 mi (573 km)

Coastline

2,129 mi (3,427 km)

Maritime claim

Contiguous zone: 24 nm
Continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation
Exclusive economic zone: 200 nm (does not apply to the Mediterranean)
Territorial sea: 12 nm

Climate/Weather

Generally cool winters and mild summers, but mild winters and hot summers along the Mediterranean coast.

Terrain

Mostly flat plains or gently rolling hills in north and west; remainder is mountainous, especially Pyrenees in south, Alps in the east.

Elevation extremes

Lowest: Rhone River delta 6.5 ft (2 m)
Highest: Mont Blanc 15,770 ft (4,807 m)

Natural Resources

Coal, iron ore, bauxite, fish, timber, zinc, potash.

Land use

Arable land	33%
Permanent crops	2%
Other	65%

(1998)

Natural hazards

Flooding; avalanches; midwinter windstorms; drought; forest fires in south near the Mediterranean.

Environment - current issues

Some forest damage from acid rain (major forest damage occurred as a result of severe December 1999 windstorm); air pollution from industrial and vehicle emissions; water pollution from urban wastes, agricultural runoff.

Geography Note

France is the largest west European nation; occasional strong, cold, dry, north-to-northwesterly wind known as mistral.

Demographics

Population

59,765,983 (July 2002)

Age structure

0-14 years:	18.5%	Male: 5,675,269	Female: 5,401,661
15-64 years:	65.2%	Male: 19,503,556	Female: 19,479,646
65 years and over:	16.3%	Male: 3,948,433	Female: 5,757,418

Growth Rate

0.35% (2002)

Life Expectancy

79.05 years (2002)
female: 83.14 years
male: 75.17 years

GDP Per Capita

Purchasing power parity
US$25,400 (2001)

Infant Mortality

4.41 deaths/1,000 live births (2002)

Sex ratio

At birth:	1.06 male(s)/female
Under 15 years:	1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years:	1 male(s)/female
65 years and over:	0.69 male(s)/female
Total population:	0.95 male(s)/female

Net migration rate

0.64 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2002)

Economy & Trade

France is in the midst of transition, from a well-to-do modern economy that featured extensive government ownership and intervention to one that relies more on market mechanisms. The Socialist-led government has partially or fully privatized many large companies, banks, and insurers, but still retains large stakes in several leading firms, including Air France, France Telecom, Renault, and Thales, and remains dominant in some sectors, particularly power, public transport, and defense industries. The telecommunications sector is gradually being opened to competition. France's leaders remain committed to a capitalism in which they maintain social equity by means of laws, tax policies, and social spending that reduce income disparity and the impact of free markets on public health and welfare. The current government has lowered income taxes and introduced measures to boost employment, but has done little to reform an overly expensive pension system, rigid labor market, and restrictive bureaucracy that discourage hiring and make the tax burden one of the highest in Europe. In addition to the tax burden, the reduction of the workweek to 35 hours, extended to small firms in 2002, has drawn criticism for lowering the competitiveness of French businesses. The current economic slowdown has thrown the government's goal of balancing the budget by 2004 off track.
The Chirac government began economic reforms in 2002 but found itself stymied by France's all too powerful government unions that were bent on maintaining benefits that taxpayers can ill afford. Little by little the government is reducing its ownership share of large enterprises, but it was quick in propping up the ailing France Telecom in 2002 with a big "loan". The national power utility EDF-GDF continues to snatch up non-French European utilities while using its own government protected monopoly to keep out foreign competitors or suitors. Like many other E.U. countries, France faces a future of aging citizens and no means to pay them their promised pensions. Immigration reform, another sensitive topic in elitist France, will be key to keeping government tax coffers topped up for the future.

Unemployment

8.9% (2001)

Inflation Rate

1.7% (2001)

Industries

Steel, machinery, chemicals, automobiles, metallurgy, aircraft, electronics, mining, textiles, food processing, tourism.

Exports

US$293.3 billion (f.o.b., 2001)

Imports

$292.6 billion (f.o.b., 2001)

Total Trade

Purchasing power parity
GDP US$1.51 trillion (2001)

Top Export Partners

EU 61% (Germany 14%, UK 10%, Spain 9%, Italy 9%, Benelux 8%), US 9% (2000)

Top Import Partners

EU 63% (Germany 17%, Benelux 10%, Italy 9%, UK 8%), US 7% (2000)

Top Exports

Machinery and transportation equipment, aircraft, plastics, chemicals, pharmaceutical products, iron and steel, beverages

Top Imports

Machinery and equipment, vehicles, crude oil, aircraft, plastics, chemicals

Debt - external

US$106 billion (1998)

Economic aid

Donor: ODA, $6.3 billion (1997)

Fiscal Year:

Calendar year

Business Workweek

	Monday - Friday	Saturday - Sunday
Offices	8a.m. or 9a.m. to 12:30p.m. and 2p.m. to 6p.m. Overtime in France has been virtually abolished. Even management personnel are not permitted to work "after hours." The government has gone as far as patrolling company parking lots after normal working hours. Even laptop computers are checked to make sure no one is taking work home with them.	Closed
Retail	Retail outlets vary widely, but common hours are Monday to Friday 10a.m. to 9p.m., Some stores close on Monday.	Slightly shorter hours on the weekend Most stores close on Sundays
Banks	9a.m. to 4:30p.m.; in certain areas they may close between noon and 2p.m.. The day preceding a bank holiday, banks close at noon. Some banks close on Monday.	Some banks remain open on Saturday.
Government	9a.m. to noon and 2p.m. to 6p.m.	Closed

Holidays

Official Holidays

Holidays	2003	2004	2005
New Year's Day	January 1	January 1	January 1
Easter¹	April 20	April 11	March 27
Easter Monday	April 21	April 12	March 28
Labor Day	May 1	May1	May 1
Victory Day (Fete de la Victoire) 1945	May 8	May 8	May 8
Ascension²	May 29	May 20	May 6
Whit Sunday (Pentecost)³	June 8	May 30	May 15
Whit Monday	June 9	May 31	May 16
Bastille Day	July 14	July 14	July 14
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary	August 15	August 15	August 15
All Saints Day	November 1	November 1	November 1
Armistice Day	November 11	November 11	November 11
Christmas Day*¹	December 25	December 25	December 25
Second Day of Christmas	December 26	December 26	December 26

¹	Easter, a Christian holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is the first Sunday after the full moon and the vernal equinox (fixed in the Gregorian calendar at March 21), and often observed with Good Friday and Easter Monday. In the West, Easter is predicted using the Gregorian calendar, while Eastern Orthodox Christians use the much older Julian calendar, and celebrate 13 days later.
²	The feast of Ascension takes place 40 days after Easter in both the Christian and Orthodox faiths and celebrates the ascent of Christ into Heaven.
³	The Christian feast of Pentecost, Whit Sunday or Whit Monday takes place 50 days after Easter, in observation of the day God came to the disciples through the Holy Ghost.
*¹	Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. In A.D.320, Pope Julius I fixed the date at December 25 based on the Gregorian calendar. The Orthodox church calculates Christmas using the Julian calendar and celebrates 13 days later on January 7.

Country information used by permission of World Trade Press