III.

Population

About 94 per cent of the French are native-born, and the population is mostly white. The largest foreign-born groups are North Africans (mainly Algerians, Moroccans, and Tunisians), Portuguese, Italians, Spanish, and Turks.

A.

Population Characteristics

The population of France is 61,083,916 (2007 estimate), giving the country an overall population density of about 112 people per sq km (290 people per sq mi). About 77 per cent of the population is classified as urban.

B.

Political Divisions

Metropolitan France, including Corsica, is composed of 22 regions, which are subdivided into 96 departments. The regions are Alsace, Aquitaine, Auvergne, Basse-Normandie, Brittany, Burgundy, Centre, Champagne-Ardenne, Corsica (which became a territorial collectivity in 1991), Franche-Comté, Haute-Normandie, Île-de-France, Languedoc-Roussillon, Limousin, Lorraine, Midi-Pyrénées, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Pays de la Loire, Picardy, Poitou-Charentes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, and Rhône-Alpes.

C.

Principal Cities

The capital and largest city of France is Paris, which has a population of 2,153,600 (2005 estimate)/metropolitan area 9,794,337 (2003 estimate). Marseille, 820,900 (2005 estimate)/1,349,772 (1999), is a chief port, and Lyon, 466,400 (2005 estimate)/1,348,832 (1999), is an industrial centre, specializing in textiles. Other major cities include Toulouse, 435,000 (2005 estimate)/761,090 (1999), an industrial and trade centre; Nice, 347,900 (2005 estimate)/888,784 (1999), a resort; Strasbourg, 272,700 (2005 estimate)/427,245 (1999), a Rhine port and industrial and commercial centre; Nantes, 281,800 (2005 estimate)/544,932 (1999), noted for sugar-refining, shipbuilding, and a variety of other industries; Bordeaux, 230,600 (2005 estimate)/753,931 (1999), a seaport and wine and industrial centre; and Montpellier, 244,300 (2005 estimate)/287,981 (1999), a commercial and manufacturing centre.

D.

Religion

Roman Catholicism is the faith of more than 90 per cent of French churchgoers. Islam, Protestantism, and Judaism are the next most important religions. During the 19th century, the Christian and Jewish religions were subsidized by the State. In 1905, because of popular opposition to the political influence of the Roman Catholic Church and to Catholic control of public education, legislation prohibited the payment of public funds to the Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish clergy. By the provisions of that and subsequent legislation, the French government withdrew official recognition of religious denominations.

E.

Language

French, the official language, is spoken by the great majority of people in France. Regional languages remain in some areas. For example, Breton is the language of daily interaction for many in Brittany, and there is a call for it to be officially recognized. Basque and Catalan are spoken in the Pyrénées mountain region near to the Spanish border. Provençal is used in south-eastern France, particularly Provence; Flemish is spoken in Flanders; and Gascon in the Gascogne Province, from Médoc to the Pyrénées, and from the Atlantic to the Spanish border. Alsatian is spoken by quite large numbers in north-eastern France, particularly Alsace and Lorraine. Other regional languages include Auvergnat, Franco-Provençal, Languedocien, Limousin, and Picard.

Italian, Portuguese, and Dutch are mother tongues for some minorities. Many non-indigenous languages are spoken by certain immigrant groups, including Algerian Spoken Arabic, Moroccan Spoken Arabic, Central Khmer, Lesser Antillean Creole French, Kabyle, and Central Atlas Tamazight.

F.

Education

French centres of learning, beginning with the French universities of the Middle Ages, particularly in the University of Paris, founded in the 12th century, and continuing down to the modern universities and technical schools, have served as academic models throughout the world. Among the French educators who had notable influence are Peter Abelard in the 12th century, Michel de Montaigne in the 16th century, François Fénelon and Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the 18th century, and Victor Cousin in the 19th century.

The centralization of school administration, with the state as the fundamental power in education, evolved under the leadership of Napoleon between 1806 and 1808. The modern educational system is based on laws enacted between 1881 and 1886 under the influence of Jules Ferry, Minister of Education. These laws provided for free, compulsory public education entirely under government control. Among later modifications were the establishment of free tuition in secondary and technical schools; the separation of Church and State in education in 1905; the legislation of aid to private schools, including those with religious affiliations, in 1951 and 1959; and, in 1959, the extension of compulsory school attendance to the age of 16. In response to strong student demands, educational reforms were approved in 1968 by President Charles de Gaulle and his Cabinet. Specifically, the new system did away with the control of budgets, curricula, and employment of teachers throughout the nation by the Ministry of Education. Instead, it established educational units at various levels, gave faculties control of staff, and gave students a greater voice in university life. The authority of university professors occupying lifetime chairs to vote on new appointments was abolished, and the establishment of more democratic departmental structures on a subject basis was indicated for universities. Several of the large universities were restructured into smaller units, and the number of French universities increased from 23 to about 70 in the 1990s. Around 5.6 per cent of the country’s gross national product (GNP) was spent on education in 2002–2003.

For administrative purposes, the country is divided into 25 educational districts called académies. In 2000 3,837,902 pupils attended about 41,244 primary schools. In addition, about 5,876,047 students attended around 11,212 secondary schools.

Some 2,029,179 students were enrolled at university and college facilities in France in 2001–2002. Besides the Universities of Paris I-XIII, noted French institutes of higher education include the Universities of Aix-Marseille I-III, the Universities of Lille I-III, the Universities of Lyon I-III, the Universities of Nancy I-II, and the Universities of Strasbourg I-III.

G.

Culture

The culture of France has profoundly influenced that of the entire Western world, particularly in the areas of art and letters, and Paris has long been regarded as the fountainhead of French culture. France first attained cultural pre-eminence in Europe during the Middle Ages; later, the wealth of the French Crown in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries provided subsidies for art on a scale comparable to that of the papacy in Rome, attracting to Paris many of Europe’s most talented artists and craftsmen. Wealth also created a leisured class, which had both the time and the means for developing elegance in dress, manners, architecture, and design. French styles still pervade much of Western culture. In the 20th century French cinema assumed a leading world position.

H.

Literature

See French Literature.

I.

Art and Architecture

See French Art and Architecture.

J.

Music

France has a long and distinguished musical tradition. From the 11th to the 13th century, chansons de geste (“songs of deeds”), epic poems sung by minstrels, were produced in northern France, and the troubadours, aristocratic poet-musicians who wrote eloquent songs dealing with courtly love, war, and nature, were active in southern France.

The most influential French composer of the 14th century was Guillaume de Machaut, an outstanding practitioner of polyphonic vocal music, both sacred and secular. In the 15th and 16th centuries, songs, motets, and settings of the Mass were among the most important French musical compositions.

In the second half of the 17th century, the Italian-born Jean-Baptiste Lully created a French operatic style by combining traditional court spectacle with the plots of contemporary French dramas, set to musical forms that blended dance with Italian opera. In the early 18th century volumes of suites for harpsichord were composed by François Couperin and Jean Philippe Rameau; the latter is also known for such operas as Castor et Pollux and Les Indes Galantes.

In the late 18th and 19th centuries, many foreign-born opera composers were active in Paris; these included Gluck, Cherubini, Grétry, Meyerbeer, and Offenbach. French-born opera composers of the 19th century included Jacques Halévy, Charles Gounod, Georges Bizet, and Jules Massenet.

The chief French composer of orchestral music in the early 19th century was Hector Berlioz. Camille Saint-Saëns first became active in the 1850s; he in turn taught Gabriel Fauré. Towards the end of the 19th century Claude Debussy composed a wide variety of works in new styles influenced by trends in literature and painting.

In the early 20th century Maurice Ravel produced works with more formal outlines. Les Six, a group of Neo-Classic composers formed in 1918-1919, included Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, and Georges Auric, whose work was influenced by that of the eccentric Erik Satie. Igor Stravinsky worked in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s; while more recent French composers include Olivier Messiaen and Pierre Boulez.

K.

Libraries and Museums

Most provincial cities in France have municipal libraries and museums. The largest concentration of such facilities is, naturally, in Paris. Major libraries in Paris include the Bibliothèque Nationale, with more than 10 million books, and the libraries of the Universities of Paris. The Louvre, also in Paris, contains one of the largest and most important art collections in the world. Another Parisian museum, the Pompidou Centre (Centre National d’Art et de Culture Georges-Pompidou), also contains major collections, notably of 20th-century painting and design. Many of the great masterpieces of French architecture, such as churches, cathedrals, castles, and châteaux, are maintained as national monuments.