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$Unique_ID{COW01380}
$Pretitle{416}
$Title{France
Profile of France. Tables}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{French Embassy, Washington DC}
$Affiliation{French Embassy, Washington DC}
$Subject{france
french
million
billion
table
president
national
population
government
republic}
$Date{1990}
$Log{Francois Mitterrand*0138001.scf
Table 1.*0138001.tab
Table 2.*0138002.tab
Table 3.*0138003.tab
Table 4.*0138004.tab
Table 5.*0138005.tab
Table 6.*0138006.tab
Table 7.*0138007.tab
Table 8.*0138008.tab
Table 9.*0138009.tab
Table 10.*0138010.tab
Table 11.*0138011.tab
Table 12.*0138012.tab
}
Country: France
Book: A Paradise For Lovers.
Author: French Embassy, Washington DC
Affiliation: French Embassy, Washington DC
Date: 1990
Profile of France. Tables
[See Francois Mitterrand: Courtesy French Information Service, New York.]
[See Table 1.: Population]
Approximately 75% of the population lives in towns of 2,000 or more.
16.2% lives in cities of 100,000 or more.
Immigrants represent 6.6% of the population totaling 3,700,000 people.
In population, France ranks 17th worldwide and accounts for
approximately 1.3% of the world's 5.03 billion (1988) population
Approximately 1,320,000 Frenchmen live abroad, almost half of them in
Europe (645,439). The rest live in North America (230,419), Africa and the
Middle East (309,732), and Latin America (74,085).
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Official Name: Republique Francaise (Republic of France)
National Anthem: La Marseillaise
Total area: 547,026 km2
France's land surface can be compared to a rough hexagon,
590 miles (950 km) from Dunkirk in the north to the Spanish frontier near
Perpignan, or from Brittany in the west to Strasbourg in the east.
Climate:
France lies between latitudes 42.5 and 51 N and longitudes 5 W to 8
East. This location gives France a temperate climate except in the southern
Mediterranean regions.
[See Table 2.: Government Information]
The countries that border France are Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany,
Switzerland, Italy, and Spain.
Administrative organization:
La France Metropolitaine (France and Corsica)
95 Metropolitan departments
4 overseas departments
-Guadeloupe
-Martinique
-French Guiana (South America)
-Reunion (Indian Ocean)
4 overseas territories
-New Caledonia
-Wallis and Futuna
-French Polynesia
-The French Southern and Antarctic Territories
2 Territorial collectivities
-Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (North America)
-Mayotte (Indian Ocean)
[See Table 3.: Standard of Living (1989)]
[See Table 4.: Employment]
[See Table 5.: The French work force can be broken down into the following
sectors: 1989]
[See Table 6.: Average annual salaries in French Francs (1988):]
The percentage of French women that hold jobs is 45.6%. France has the
highest female work force of any other country in the European Community.
These French women occupy more than half of all the white collars jobs in the
country.
EDUCATION
Funding for education represents 6.3% of the French GNP.
Enrollment for France excluding all French territories:
6,699,116 million elementary school students (1990)
5,711,701 million secondary education students (1990)
1,684,058 million university-level students (1989)
(There were 3,214 American students studying at the university level in
1989).
[See Table 7.: Taxes]
[See Table 8.: Economy]
Foreign trade (merchandise trade only)
France is the 4th largest exporter and the 5th largest importer on the
foreign trade market. Exports in 1989 reached US $178,967 billion. Imports in
1989 reached US $193,143 billion.
The foreign trade deficit in 1989 was -2.221 billion dollars (-14.167
billion FF). For the United States, the foreign trade deficit in 1989 was -129
billion dollars. This figure is 2.5% of America's GNP.
[See Table 9.: Foreign trade surpluses]
The principal clients of French exports are (1989) West Germany (16.0%),
Italy (12.1%), Great Britain (9.6%), Belgium-Luxembourg (8.9%), and the United
States (6.6%).
The most important suppliers of imports to France are (1989) West
Germany (19.3%), Italy (11.5%), Belgium-Luxembourg (9.2%), United States
(7.7%), and Great Britain (7.1%).
[See Table 10.: Industry]
AGRICULTURE
Over 60% of French soil is used for agriculture, a figure representing a
total of 31,588,000 hectares. 25% is used for forestry. As of 1988, 7% of the
working population was involved in agriculture or related industries; as
compared to 20% in 1968. There were at that time 4 million farmers, almost
half that of 1968.
While the actual active labor force involved in agriculture has declined
in France, agricultural production has tripled in volume since 1950.
Agricultural Exports
In 1989, agricultural products accounted for 17.1% of total exports. For
this period, exports reached a level of $29.6 billion (189 billion FF) while
imports reached $22.1 billion (141 billion FF).
Wheat is ranked first in agricultural exports with a registered $2.5
billion (16 billion FF) trade surplus in 1989. 51.1% of arable land is used
for cereal production in France.
Viticulture (1988):
Wine - With a harvest of 58.0m hectoliters, France is ranked 2nd after
Italy in world production of wines.
Wine and spirits totaled a record $5 billion in 1988, an 6% increase over
1987.
Cognac - over 150 million bottles of cognac were exported in 1988; almost
30 million (27%) of these were sold on the American market. Europe is the
largest cognac market with 43% of total sales.
Beef Farming:
Representing 3.6% of the world production of beef, France was ranked 5th
with an annual yield of 1.655.
Milk production (1988):
With a production of 233m hectoliters, France is ranked 3rd in the world.
Tourism (1989):
France, a land proud of its internationally renowned cuisine and
monuments currently registers 42 million visitors annually. Americans
represent approximately 2.5 million tourists (1989).
National Parks (1989):
France maintains 6 national parks (Vanoise, Port-Cros, Pyrenees-
Occidentales, Cevennes, Les Ecrins et le Mercantour) representing 1.3 million
hectares. In addition to 92 nature reserves there are 25 natural regional
parks totaling 3.25 million hectares.
TRANSPORTATION:
Rail: In 1989, the SNCF (Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer) carried
over 830 million passengers and 143 million tons of freight. There is
presently 35 thousand km of railroad track in France.
TGV: The TGV (Train a Grande Vitesse) allows for travel by rail to
compete with the comfort and efficiency of the airline industry. For instance,
the 423 km distance between Paris and Lyon can be reached in 2 hours at an
average speed of 211.5km/hour.
The TGV set another world speed record on May 18, 1990 with a registered
speed of 320.2 MPH (515.3 KPH).
Highway: France maintains one of the finest road and motorway networks in
the world. Her 1.5 million kilometers of paved roads are travelled by some 26
million automobiles each year.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS:
The estimated 1989 budget for the Post, Telephone and Telecommunications
Ministry is 181.3 billion FF, thereby constituting the largest budget of the
largest civil ministries. It is also one of the largest civilian employers in
France.
France is updating services by offering mobile telephones in the year to
come. 81 phones are already installed on various TGV'S and in 1991, Air France
will offer telephones in their airplanes.
(1989) public telephone booths 235,000
private telephone lines 25,800,000
Minitel terminals 4,228,000
Exports from the telecommunications industry reached 6.3 billion FF in
1987 (2.7 billion FF in 1980). On the international m