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
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Displaying 1 to 7 of 68 items.
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 41 to 44 of 66 items.
World Press Review correspondent Brent Gregston, writing from Paris, reports on a new book's serious accusations against French newspaper of record Le Monde.
Writing in Der Spiegel, Frank Patalong reports on a growing number of U.S. Web sites that are calling for boycotts of German-made goods.
World Press Review correspondents describe how the war with Iraq is being covered in their countries.
A new book argues that the Paris newspaper Le Monde has been turned into a Mafia-like enterprise by a power-hungry triumvirate, Airy Routier reports in Le Nouvel Observateur