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The Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the OECD, ranked France’s education as near the OECD average in 2018. Approximately 77% of health expenditures are covered by government-funded agencies. Alsace and Moselle, which were part of the German Empire when state secularism was established in France, is an exception since the local law stipulates official status and state funding for Lutheranism, Catholicism, and Judaism. France is a secular country in which freedom of religion is a constitutional right. There are 77 vernacular minority languages, eight spoken in Metropolitan France and 69 in the overseas territories.

The rise of Protestantism led France to a civil war known as the French Wars of Religion. French explorers claimed lands in the Americas, paving expansion of the French colonial empire. France was struck by the Black Death, from which half of the 17 million population died. Edward contested Philip’s throne in 1337, beginning the intermittent Hundred Years’ War between England and France.

Thus, nearly a fifth of the country’s population were either first or second-generation immigrants, of which more than 5 million were of European origin and 4 million of Maghrebi ancestry. The next largest wave came in the 1960s when around 1.6 million pieds-noirs returned to France following the independence of its northwest African possessions of Algeria and Morocco. In 2004 the Institut Montaigne estimated that within Metropolitan France, 51 million people were white (85% of the population), 6 million were northwest African (10%), 2 million were black (3.3%), and 1 million were Asian (1.7%). Immigrants are major contributors to this trend; in 2010, roughly one in four newborns (27 percent) in Metropolitan France had at least one foreign-born parent, and another 24 percent had at least one parent born outside Europe (excluding French overseas territories). With an estimated population of 69,081,996 people,k France is the 20th most populous country in the world, the third-most populous in Europe, and the second most populous in the European Union.

From Dieppe to Le Havre: In the footsteps of the Impressionists in Normandy

Although regional languages do not have the status of official languages, they are recognised by Article 75-1 of the constitution as part of France’s heritage. There are also regional languages spoken in France, such as Occitan, Breton, Catalan, Flemish (Dutch dialect), Alsatian (German dialect), Basque, and Corsican (Italian dialect). Statistics on Spanish immigrants in France show a growth 1xbet malaysia of 107 per cent between 2009 and 2012, with the population growing from 5,300 to 11,000. In 2022, more than 320,000 migrants came to France, with the majority coming from Africa.

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France has fully reintegrated into NATO and since participated in most NATO-sponsored wars. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, France has been at the forefront of the development of a supranational European Union, notably by signing the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, establishing the eurozone in 1999 and signing the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007. However, he opposed any development of a supranational Europe, favouring sovereign nations. A new constitution resulted in the Fourth Republic (1946–1958), which saw strong economic growth (les Trente Glorieuses). Free France, the government-in-exile led by Charles de Gaulle, was set up in London.

Its land borders consist of Belgium and Luxembourg in the northeast, Germany and Switzerland in the east, Italy and Monaco in the southeast, and Andorra and Spain in the south and southwest. It is bordered by the North Sea in the north, the English Channel in the northwest, the Atlantic Ocean in the west and the Mediterranean Sea in the southeast. The government had a policy of assimilation of immigrants, where they were expected to adhere to French values and norms.

• It was only in 1981 that the government allowed free broadcasting in the territory.
• Paris is now a sprawling metropolis, one of Europe’s largest conurbations, but its historic heart can still be traversed in an evening’s walk.
• Two months later in the legislative elections, Macron lost his parliamentary majority and had to form a minority government.
• The region experiences a Mediterranean climate, with hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters, which contributes to its distinct flora and fauna.

good reasons to visit France in the spring

The crown passed to Philip of Valois rather than Edward of Plantagenet, who became Edward III of England. Tensions between France and the Plantagenet empire would last a hundred years, until Philip II of France conquered, between 1202 and 1214, most continental possessions of the empire, leaving England and Aquitaine to the Plantagenets. From the 11th century, the House of Plantagenet, rulers of the County of Anjou, established its dominion over the surrounding provinces of Maine and Touraine, then built an “empire” from England to the Pyrenees, covering half of modern France.

France has historically been one of the world’s major agricultural centres and remains a “global agricultural powerhouse”; France is the world’s sixth-biggest exporter of agricultural products, generating a trade surplus of over €7.4 billion. The Paris Region has the highest concentration of multinational firms in mainland Europe. In 2018 France was the fifth-largest trading nation and second-largest in Europe, with the value of exports representing over a fifth of GDP. Less than 2 per cent of GDP is generated by the primary sector, namely agriculture; the agricultural sector is among the largest in value and leads the EU in overall production.

The northern part of the valley, surrounded by mountains and plateaus, is narrow, while the southern part expands into a broad floodplain. The region’s soils are sandy, having been shaped by the gradual accumulation of marine and wind-blown deposits. Notably, the region has a significant maritime influence, manifesting in its climate and the physical formation of its coastal features.

This left Rome weakened, and the Gauls continued to harass the region until 345 BC when they entered into a peace treaty. Neanderthals occupied the region into the Upper Paleolithic era but were slowly replaced by Homo sapiens around 35,000 BC. It hosts the fourth-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, with 54 in total, and is the world’s leading tourist destination, having received 102 million foreign visitors in 2025. This led to the establishment of the French Third Republic, and a period of economic prosperity and cultural and scientific flourishing known as the Belle Époque.