Everything about Metropolitan France totally explained
Metropolitan France (or
la Métropole, or colloquially
l'Hexagone) is the part of
France located in
Europe, including
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 overseas 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 doesn't include the French overseas collectivities and territories which have more autonomy than the overseas departments (read the Origin of the name section below).
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 (for example "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 (for example
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 doesn't 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 where sovereignty is suspended since the signing of the
Antarctic Treaty in 1959). Thus, metropolitan France accounts for 81.8% of the French Republic's territory.
As of
January 1,
2008, 61,875,822 people lived in metropolitan France, while 2,597,318 lived in overseas France, for a total of 64,473,140 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, due to its roughly
hexagonal shape.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Metropolitan France'.
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