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Western Europe. Slightly smaller than Colorado. Capital: Paris
France is a Republic. It is member of the European Union and has been a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) since its inception in 1949.
Figures unless otherwise stated are from the CIA Factbook.
Estimated per capita GDP:
2007 $31,100 (Ranks 33rd)
GDP annual growth rate estimated for 2007: 1.8 percent. (Ranks 191st.)
GDP growth in 2004 of 2.1 percent, compared to 4.4 percent for the United States.
Military expenditures as percentage of GDP: 2.6. (2005)
Exports machinery and transportation equipment, aircraft, plastics, chemicals, pharmaceutical products, iron and steel, beverages. Exports more in cash value than it imports.
Since the end of WWII , the government has been increasingly integrating the nation's economy with that of Germany, forming what today is called the "Franco-German locomotive." France has few natural energy resources of its own, and in the 1970s it reduced its reliance on oil imports by conservation and solar and nuclear power. Nuclear power provided France with 30 percent of its electricity by 1973 and 75 percent by the end of the century, when its dependence of foreign energy sources was down to 45 percent - better than Japan, which was around 80 percent, and the United States, which was more than 50 percent.
In 2004 the French government maintains majority ownership in the railway, electricity, aircraft and telecommunications industries. Since the early 1990s France has been gradually "relaxing its control" over these industries, including selling its holdings in France Telecom and Air France.
France is a world leader in the making of airplanes and in the aerospace industry and it is the only European power aside from Russia with a national space center. France is also the largest producer of agricultural products in Western Europe.
The French have instituted the 35-hour work week, which adds to the cost of labor that goes into its products. For the year 1997 the average worker in France labored 1,645 hours, compared to 1,951 hours for the average American, which amounts to less than one hour per day and a little more than 38 eight-hour days per year.
Unemployment for 2004 is calculated at 10.1 percent - compared to 5.5 percent in the United States.
Since 2002, France's currency has been the Euro.
For 2008: deaths 8.48; births 12.73
European (Metropolitan) France: 60.06 million.
All France (French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion: 64.06 million.
Density for 2005: 111 persons per square kilometer, compared to 107.8 for Ohio. Density per square kilometer of arable land: 331 persons.
More arriving than leaving, a net gain of 1.48 persons per 1,000 population.
The World Health Organization describing France as providing the world's best health care. The state health care system provides universal coverage and freedom to choose one's own doctor. It returns to its citizens up to 85 percent of their medical costs. Hospitals are described as well equipped and clean, with what is described as good food and red wine with dinners. Women giving birth without complications may stay as many as eight days.
Infant deaths before the age of one per 1,000 live births for 2008: 3.36
Average life expectancy estimated for 2008: 80.87 years.
Living with HIV/AIDS, ages 15 to 49: 0.4 percent (2003), compared to 0.6 percent for the United States.
The French in 1999 spent $2,288 per person on health care, the United States that year spent $4,271.
The marriage rate is declining. For each 1,000 persons, in 1980 there were 6.2 marriages, in 1990 5.1, in 2000 5.0, in 2004 4.3 compared to 7.8 for the United States.
The top 10 percent in household income in 1995 did 25.1 percent of spending for consumers goods. For the lowest 10 percent of households this was 2.8 percent. In the United States these figures for 1997 were 30.5 percent and 1.8 percent.
For a single worker without children, in the year 2001, including contributions to Social Security, a French person earning an average wage paid 48.3 percent of income. In the U.S. this was 30 percent, in Belgium 55.6 percent.
In 2003, France spent $104.68 per capita on foreign aid, compared to $23.76 for the United States.
France has citizens descended from North Africans - largely Muslim and largely Algerian. It has citizens descended from Indochinese and it has citizens who are Basque.
The murder rate in France is one quarter that of the United States - 0.01 per thousand compared to 0.04 in the United States. The French have 0.85 per 1,000 persons in jail compared to 7.1 per 1,000 in the United States
The French are less religious than U.S. citizens. In a 2003 poll in France, 41 percent described themselves as atheist and 26 percent as having no religion. Eighty-three to eighty-eight percent describe themselves as Catholic - some apparently seeing themselves as both attached to the Catholic Church and as atheists. The French try to keep religion private and in general they oppose religious influences on government policy.
Twelve percent of Catholics attend mass weekly (New York Times, April 19, 2005).
The separation of state in religion prohibits government officials from promoting religion in anyway, including saying "God bless France" - in any language.
France is having trouble in its wine growing industry. Consumption is down at home. Foreign competition has grown. And the weak U.S. dollar makes its wine more expensive abroad.
SOURCES:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/
http://www.nationmaster.com/index.php
http://www.gciu.org/archives/99oct/hours.shtml
Copyright © 2008 by Frank E. Smitha. All rights reserved.