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Metropolitan France
Metropolitan France ( or
la Métropole, or colloquially l'Hexagone) is the
part of France
located in
Europe, including Corsica
. It
can also be described as mainland France or as the French mainland
and the
island of Corsica. By contrast,
Overseas
France (
la France d'outre-mer, or
l'Outre-mer, or colloquially
les DOM-TOM) is the
collective name for the French
overseas departments (
départements
d'outre-mer or
DOM),
territories (
territoires
d'outre-mer or
TOM), and
collectivities (
collectivitiés
d'outre-mer or
COM).
Metropolitan France and the overseas
territories of France together form what is officially called the
French Republic
. Metropolitan France accounts for 81.8% of
the territory and 96.0% of the population of the French
Republic.
The four
overseas departments—Martinique
, Guadeloupe
, Réunion
, and
French
Guiana
—have the same political status as metropolitan
France's departments. Metropolitan France and these four
overseas departments together are sometimes called
France
entière ("entire France") by the French administration,
especially by
INSEE, although in reality this
France entière does not include the French overseas
collectivities and territories which have more autonomy than the
overseas departments.
In overseas France, a person from metropolitan France is often
called a
métro, short for
métropolitain.
Origin of the name
The term "metropolitan France" dates from the country's
colonial period (from the 16th through the 20th
centuries), when France was referred to as
la Métropole
(literally "the Metropolis") as distinguished from its colonies and
protectorates, known as
les colonies or
l'Empire.
Similar terms existed to describe other European colonial powers
(e.g. "metropolitan Britain", "España metropolitana"). This usage
of the words "metropolis" and "metropolitan" itself came from
ancient Greek "
metropolis" (from
μήτηρ mētēr
"mother" and
πόλις pólis "city, town") which was
the name for a city-state from which originated colonies across the
Mediterranean (e.g.
Marseille
was a colony of the city-state of Phocaea
, therefore
Phocaea was the "metropolis" of Marseille). By extension
"metropolis" and "metropolitan" came to mean "motherland", "parent
state of a colony", a nation or country as opposed to its colonies
overseas.
Today there are some people in
overseas
France who object to the use of the term
France
métropolitaine due to its colonial origins. They prefer to
call it "the European territory of France" (
le territoire
européen de la France), as the
Treaties of the European
Union do. Likewise, they oppose treating overseas France and
metropolitan France as separate entities. For example,
INSEE used to calculate its statistics (demography,
economy, etc.) for metropolitan France only, and then treat the
overseas departments and territories separately, but people in the
overseas departments opposed this separate treatment, arguing that
the four overseas departments are fully part of France. As a
result, starting in the end of the 1990s, INSEE is now including
the four overseas departments in its figures for France (such as
total population or GDP). INSEE refers to metropolitan France and
the four overseas departments as
France entière ("entire
France"); "entire France" includes the four overseas departments,
but does not include the other overseas collectivities and
territories. Other branches of the French administration may have
different definitions of what
France entière is. For
example, when the
Ministry of the Interior
releases election results, they use the name
France
entière to refer to the entire French Republic, including all
of overseas France and not just the four overseas departments
contrary to INSEE.
Note that since INSEE is now calculating statistics for
France
entière, this practice has spread to international
institutions so that for instance the French GDP published by the
World Bank includes metropolitan France
and the four overseas departments. The World Bank refers to this as
"France" only, and not "entire France" as INSEE does.
Statistics
Metropolitan France covers an area of
551,695 km² (213,011 sq. miles), while overseas France covers an area of
123,148 km² (47,548 sq. miles), for a total of
674,843 km² (260,558 sq. miles) in the French Republic
(excluding Adélie
Land
in Antarctica
). Thus, metropolitan France accounts for
81.8% of the French Republic's territory.
As of January 1, 2009, 62,448,977 people lived in metropolitan
France, while 2,624,505 lived in overseas France, for a total of
65,073,482 inhabitants in the French Republic. Thus, metropolitan
France accounts for 96.0% of the French Republic's
population.
In the second round of the
2007 French presidential
election, 37,342,004 French people cast a ballot (meaning a
record
turnout of 83.97%). 35,907,015
of these (96.16% of the total voters) cast their ballots in
metropolitan France (turnout: 85.31%), 1,088,679 (2.91% of the
total voters) cast their ballots in overseas France (turnout:
69.85%), and 346,310 (0.93% of the total voters) cast their ballots
in foreign countries (French people living abroad; turnout:
42.13%).
The
French National
Assembly is made up of 577 deputies, 555 of whom (96.2% of the
total) are elected in metropolitan France, and 22 of whom (3.8% of
the total) are elected in overseas France.
Continental France
Metropolitan France, excluding the island of
Corsica
, is referred to as "continental France" (French:
la France continentale), or just "the Continent" (French:
le continent). In Corsica, people from continental
France are referred to as "Continentals" (French:
les
continentaux).
A casual synonym for continental France is
l'Hexagone
("the
Hexagon"), for its approximate
shape.
See also
References
- Since 2003, the constitutional term for an overseas department
is overseas
region (French: région d'outre-mer).