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Metropolitan France ( or la Métropole, or colloquially l'Hexagone) is the part of France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 located in Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, including Corsica
Corsica

Corsica is the Mediterranean islands#By area in the Mediterranean Sea . It is located west of Italy, southeast of the France mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
. By contrast, Overseas France
French overseas departments and territories

The French Overseas Departments and Territories consist broadly of France-administered territories outside of the European continent. These territories have varying legal status and different levels of autonomy, although all have representation in the Parliament of France , and the right to vote in elections to the European Parliament....
 (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
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
.






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Metropolitan France ( or la Métropole, or colloquially l'Hexagone) is the part of France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 located in Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, including Corsica
Corsica

Corsica is the Mediterranean islands#By area in the Mediterranean Sea . It is located west of Italy, southeast of the France mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
. By contrast, Overseas France
French overseas departments and territories

The French Overseas Departments and Territories consist broadly of France-administered territories outside of the European continent. These territories have varying legal status and different levels of autonomy, although all have representation in the Parliament of France , and the right to vote in elections to the European Parliament....
 (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
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
. Metropolitan France accounts for 81.8% of the territory and 96.0% of the population of the French Republic.

The four overseas departments—Martinique
Martinique

Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, having a land area of 1,128 km?. It is an overseas department of France. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia....
, Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe is an island group or archipelago located in the eastern Caribbean Sea at , with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres . It is an overseas department of France....
, Réunion
Reunion

Reunion may refer to:...
, and French Guiana
French Guiana

French Guiana is an overseas department of France, located on the northern coast of South America. Like the other Overseas departments, French Guiana is also an overseas region of France, one of the 26 regions of France, and is an integral part of the French Republic....
—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
INSEE

INSEE is the France List of national and international statistical services for Statistics and Economic Studies. It collects and publishes information on the Economy of France and society, carrying out the periodic national census....
, although in reality this France entière does not 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
Colony

In politics and in history, a colony is a Territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies....
 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 (e.g. "metropolitan Britain", "España metropolitana"). This usage of the words "metropolis" and "metropolitan" itself came from ancient Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
 "metropolis
Metropolis

A metropolis , also referred to as a metropolitan, is a big city, in most cases with over half a million inhabitants in the city proper, and with a population of at least one million living in its Agglomeration....
" (from µ?t??, = mother and p????, = city/town) which was the name for a city-state from which originated colonies across the Mediterranean (e.g. Marseille
Marseille

"Marseille" is the second-largest city of France and forms the third-largest aire urbaine, after those of Paris and Lyon, with a population recorded to be 1,516,340 at the 1999 census and estimated to be 1,605,000 in 2007....
 was a colony of the city-state of Phocaea
Phocaea

Phocaea, or Phokaia, was an ancient Ionian Ancient Greece city on the western coast of Anatolia. Colonies in antiquity from Phocaea founded the colony of Massalia in 600 BC, Emporion in 575 BC and Velia in 540 BC....
, 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
Treaties of the European Union

The Treaties of the European Union are a set of Treaty between the Union's Member State of the European Union which sets out the Constitution of the European Union ....
 do. Likewise, they oppose treating overseas France and metropolitan France as separate entities. For example, INSEE
INSEE

INSEE is the France List of national and international statistical services for Statistics and Economic Studies. It collects and publishes information on the Economy of France and society, carrying out the periodic national census....
 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 does not 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
Minister of the Interior (France)

The Minister of the Interior in France is one of the most important governmental French government ministers, responsible for the following:* The general interior security of the country, with respect to criminal acts or natural catastrophes...
 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
World Bank

The World Bank is a bank that provides financial and technical assistance to developing countries for development programs with the stated goal of reducing poverty....
 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
Adélie Land

Ad?lie Land is the portion of the Antarctic coast between Pourquoi Pas Point at and Point Alden at , with a shore length of 350 km and with its hinterland extending as a Circular sector about 2,600 km toward the South Pole....
 in Antarctica
Antarctica

Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent, overlying the South Pole. It is situated in the Antarctica of the southern hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean....
 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, 2009, 62,448,977 people lived in metropolitan France, while 2,624,505 lived in overseas France, for a total of 65,073,482 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
French presidential election, 2007

The 2007 French presidential election, the ninth of the Fifth French Republic was held to elect the successor to Jacques Chirac as President of the French Republic of France for a five-year term....
, 37,342,004 French people cast a ballot (meaning a record turnout
Voter turnout

Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voting who cast a ballot in an election. After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracy since the 1960s....
 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
Corsica

Corsica is the Mediterranean islands#By area in the Mediterranean Sea . It is located west of Italy, southeast of the France mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
, 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 ("the Hexagon
Hexagon

In geometry, a hexagon is a polygon with six edges and six Vertex . A regular hexagon has Schl?fli symbol ....
"), for its approximate shape.

See also

  • Mainland
    Mainland

    Mainland is usually the continental part of a region, as opposed to the islands nearby. Sometimes the residents are called "the Mainlanders". As a result of the usually larger area of mainland, there are significantly more mainlanders than islanders, and mainlander culture and politics sometimes threaten to dominate those of the islands....
  • Continental United States, a comparable use in the United States