France 
Facts
Population:
59,551,227 (July 2001 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years:
18.68% (male 5,698,604; female 5,426,838)
15-64 years:
65.19% (male 19,424,018; female 19,399,588)
65 years and over:
16.13% (male 3,900,579; female 5,701,600) (2001 est.)
Population growth rate:
0.37% (2001 est.)
Birth rate:
12.1 births/1,000 population (2001 est.)
Death rate:
9.09 deaths/1,000 population (2001 est.)
Net migration rate:
0.64 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2001 est.)
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:
0.68 male(s)/female
total population:
0.95 male(s)/female (2001 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
4.46 deaths/1,000 live births (2001 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population:
78.9 years
male:
75.01 years
female:
83.01 years (2001 est.)
Total fertility rate:
1.75 children born/woman (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
0.44% (1999 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
130,000 (1999 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths:
2,000 (1999 est.)
Nationality:
noun:
Frenchman(men), Frenchwoman(women)
adjective:
French
Ethnic groups:
Celtic and Latin with Teutonic, Slavic, North African, Indochinese, Basque minorities
Religions:
Roman Catholic 90%, Protestant 2%, Jewish 1%, Muslim (North African workers) 3%, unaffiliated 4%
Languages:
French 100%, rapidly declining regional dialects and languages (Provencal, Breton, Alsatian, Corsican, Catalan, Basque, Flemish)
Literacy:
definition:
age 15 and over can read and write
total population:
99%
male:
99%
female:
99% (1980 est.)
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $1.448 trillion (2000 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
3.1% (2000 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $24,400 (2000 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture:
3.3%
industry:
26.1%
services:
70.6% (1999)
Population below poverty line:
NA%
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%:
2.8%
highest 10%:
25.1% (1995)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
1.7% (2000 est.)
Labor force:
25 million (2000)
Labor force - by occupation:
services 71%, industry 25%, agriculture 4% (1997)
Unemployment rate:
9.7% (2000 est.)
Budget:
revenues:
$210 billion
expenditures:
$240 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (2000 est.)
Industries:
machinery, chemicals, automobiles, metallurgy, aircraft, electronics; textiles, food processing; tourism
Industrial production growth rate:
3.5% (2000 est.)
Electricity - production:
497.26 billion kWh (1999)
Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel:
9.69%
hydro:
14.39%
nuclear:
75.43%
other:
0.49% (1999)
Electricity - consumption:
398.752 billion kWh (1999)
Electricity - exports:
68.7 billion kWh (1999)
Electricity - imports:
5 billion kWh (1999)
Agriculture - products:
wheat, cereals, sugar beets, potatoes, wine grapes; beef, dairy products; fish
Exports:
$325 billion (f.o.b., 2000 est.)
Exports - commodities:
machinery and transportation equipment, aircraft, plastics, chemicals, pharmaceutical products, iron and steel, beverages
Exports - partners:
EU 63% (Germany 16%, UK 10%, Spain 9%, Italy 9%, Belgium-Luxembourg 8%), US 8% (1999)
Imports:
$320 billion (f.o.b., 2000 est.)
Imports - commodities:
machinery and equipment, vehicles, crude oil, aircraft, plastics, chemicals
Imports - partners:
EU 62% (Germany 16%, Belgium-Luxembourg 11%, Italy 9%, UK 8%), US 7% (2000 est.)
Debt - external:
$106 billion (1998)
Economic aid - donor:
ODA, $6.3 billion (1997)
Currency:
French franc (FRF); euro (EUR)
note:
on 1 January 1999, the EU introduced the euro as a common currency that is now being used by financial institutions in France at a fixed rate of 6.55957 French francs per euro and will replace the local currency for all transactions in 2002
Currency code:
FRF; EUR
Exchange rates:
euros per US dollar - 1.0659 (January 2001), 1.0854 (2000), 0.9386 (1999); French francs per US dollar - 5.65 (January 1999), 5.8995 (1998), 5.8367 (1997), 5.1155 (1996)
Fiscal year:
calendar year
Statistics: CIA World Factbook.
Press
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7 Jours d'Europe
(EU weekly), Paris/Brussels
Ad-Dawliya
(Arab-oriented weekly), Paris
(Regional affairs monthly), Paris
http://www.focusintl.com/pilypily.htm
(International news service), Paris
http://www.afp.fr/english/home/
Alternatives Algériennes
(Expatriate Algerian bimonthly), Paris
Arabies
(Liberal Francophone-oriented monthly), Paris
(Science monthly), Paris
http://www.caminteresse.fr
France in the News
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Displaying 1 to 4 of 63 items.
In the past, French politicians had private lives that were just as riveting as Sarkozy's. Only they kept their private affairs away from tabloid news and public scrutiny.
Is France ready for a real-life Marianne and not just a real life woman posing for a statute?
Only in the land of Voltaire would the Minister of Religious Affairs defend a newspaper’s right to call Islamic fundamentalists “assholes.”
Jean Plantureux, known professionally as Plantu, is a cartoonist specializing in political satire.
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