48-627: In the administrative divisions of France , the department ( French : département , pronounced [depaʁtəmɑ̃] ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities "), between the administrative regions and the communes . There are ninety-six departments in metropolitan France , with an additional five overseas departments , which are also classified as overseas regions. Departments are further subdivided into 333 arrondissements and 2,054 cantons (as of 2023). These last two levels of government have no political autonomy, instead serving as
96-507: A Maîtres des Requêtes , a class of lawyers who acted as professional bureaucrats, government officials and diplomats. They were part of the Noblesse de robe or Nobles of the robe , or the Second Estate in pre-Revolutionary France. Rank derived from holding judicial or administrative posts, and its members were hard-working professionals, unlike the aristocratic Noblesse d'épée or Nobles of
144-455: A county of the United States . At the 2001 census, the median population of a department in continental France was 511,000 inhabitants, which is 21 times the median population of a United States county, but less than two-thirds of the median population of a ceremonial county of England and Wales. Most of the departments have an area of between 4,000 and 8,000 km (1500 to 3000 sq. mi.), and
192-493: A more uniform division into departments ( département ) and districts in late 1789. The process began on 4 August 1789 with the elimination of provincial privileges, and a 22 December 1789 decree (with letters patent in January 1790) provided for the termination of the provincial governments. The modern department system, as all-purpose units of the government, was decreed on 26 February 1790 (with letters patent on 4 March 1790) by
240-507: A population between 320,000 and 1 million. The largest in area is Gironde (10,000 km (3,900 sq mi).), while the smallest is the city of Paris (105 km (41 sq mi).). The most populous is Nord (2,550,000) and the least populous is Lozère (74,000). The departments are numbered: their two-digit numbers appear in postal codes , in INSEE codes (including "social security numbers") and on vehicle number plates . Initially
288-404: A president. Their main areas of responsibility include the management of a number of social and welfare allowances, of junior high school ( collège ) buildings and technical staff, and local roads and school and rural buses, and a contribution to municipal infrastructures. Local services of the state administration are traditionally organised at departmental level, where the prefect represents
336-417: A three-digit number. The number is used, for example, in the postal code and was until recently used for all vehicle registration plates . Residents commonly use the numbers to refer to their own department or a neighbouring one, for example inhabitants of Loiret may refer to their department as "the 45". More distant departments are generally referred to by their names, as few people know the numbers of all
384-525: Is commonly associated, though not all are officially recognised or used. Unlike the rest of the French possessions in Africa , Algeria was divided into departments just like Corsica or Normandy from 1848 until its independence in 1962. These departments were supposed to be "assimilated" or "integrated" to France sometime in the future. There are a number of former departments in territories conquered by France during
432-411: Is known as the prefecture ( préfecture ) or chef-lieu de département and is generally a town of some importance roughly at the geographical centre of the department. This was determined according to the time taken to travel on horseback from the periphery of the department. The goal was for the prefecture to be accessible on horseback from any town in the department within 24 hours. The prefecture
480-555: Is not necessarily the largest city in the department: for instance, in Saône-et-Loire department the capital is Mâcon , but the largest city is Chalon-sur-Saône . Departments may be divided into arrondissements . The capital of an arrondissement is called a subprefecture ( sous-préfecture ) or chef-lieu d'arrondissement . Each department is administered by a departmental council ( conseil départemental ), an assembly elected for six years by universal suffrage , with
528-531: Is shared across some or all levels of government (e.g. transport, parks, tourism, culture, and sport get different types of support from different levels). Historically, France was divided into a complex mosaic of more or less independent entities. Their gradual incorporation into France as provinces may be followed in the article Territorial formation of France . Marc-Ren%C3%A9 de Voyer de Paulmy d%27Argenson (1623%E2%80%931700) Marc-René de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson (13 December 1623 – 1 May 1700),
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#1732845092209576-537: Is unique in the French Republic: it is the only French local government that is not a territorial collectivity (although its subdivisions are territorial collectivities). It is regarded as a sui generis collectivity , which means that local government and parliament have the power to pass and enforce specific laws without seeking the consent of the French Government; unless such laws are declared illegitimate by
624-628: The Ponts et Chaussées (Bridges and Highways) infrastructure administration. Before the French Revolution , France gained territory gradually through the annexation of a mosaic of independent entities. By the end of the Ancien Régime it was organised into provinces . During the Revolution they were dissolved, partly in order to weaken old loyalties. The National Constituent Assembly decided to create
672-649: The 1823 French intervention ending the trienio liberal ) and the 1833 territorial division of Spain , which forms the basis of the present day Provinces of Spain with minor modifications, are also based on the French model of departments of roughly equal size. Most French departments are assigned a two-digit number, the Official Geographical Code, allocated by the Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques ( Insée ). Overseas departments have
720-622: The French Revolution and Napoleonic Empire that are now not part of France: Dutch Republic : Holy Roman Empire : Dutch Republic : Holy Roman Empire : Dutch Republic : Holy Roman Empire : Holy Roman Empire : Electorate of the Palatinate Electorate of the Palatinate Kingdom of Prussia : Imperial Free City of Wesel (after 1805) Notes for Table 7: Administrative divisions of France The administrative divisions of France are concerned with
768-535: The French Southern and Antarctic Lands , which have no permanent population and no communes. French subdivisions that have a (limited) freedom of administration are called territorial collectivities . Among them are regions, departments, communes, overseas collectivities, provinces (only present in New Caledonia), and the territorial collectivity of Corsica which belongs to no category (but is usually grouped with
816-470: The ISO 3166-2 country subdivision codes for the metropolitan departments. The overseas departments have three digits. Originally, the relationship between the departments and the central government was left somewhat ambiguous. While citizens in each department elected their own officials, the local governments were subordinated to the central government, becoming instruments of national integration. By 1793, however,
864-582: The National Constituent Assembly . Their boundaries served two purposes: The old nomenclature was carefully avoided in naming the new departments. Most were named after an area's principal river or other physical features. Even Paris was in the department of Seine . Savoy , during its temporary occupation, became the department of Mont-Blanc . The provinces continued to exist administratively until 21 September 1791. The number of departments, initially 83, had been increased to 130 by 1809 with
912-723: The President of France . The French Republic is divided into 18 regions: 12 in mainland France and 6 elsewhere (1 in Europe : Corsica ; 2 in the Caribbean (the Lesser Antilles ): Guadeloupe and Martinique ; 1 in South America : French Guiana ; and 2 in the Indian Ocean near East Africa : Mayotte and Réunion ). They are traditionally divided between the metropolitan regions, located on
960-583: The President of the Departmental Council as executive of the department. Before 1982, the chief executive of the department was the prefect ( préfet ), who represents the Government of France in each department and is appointed by the President of the French Republic . The prefect is assisted by one or more sub-prefects ( sous-préfet ) based in the subprefectures of the department. Since 1982,
1008-569: The Territoire de Belfort ; the remaining parts of Meurthe and Moselle were merged into a new Meurthe-et-Moselle department. When France regained the ceded departments after World War I , the Territoire de Belfort was not reintegrated into Haut-Rhin. In 1922 it became France's 90th department. Likewise the Lorraine departments were not changed back to their original boundaries, and a new Moselle department
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#17328450922091056-649: The UMP , said in December 2008 that the fusion of the departments with the regions was a matter to be dealt with soon. This was soon refuted by Édouard Balladur and Gérard Longuet , members of the committee for the reform of local authorities, known as the Balladur Committee. In January 2008, the Attali Commission recommended that the departmental level of government should be eliminated within ten years. Nevertheless,
1104-410: The Balladur Committee has not retained this proposition and does not advocate the disappearance of the departments, but simply "favors the voluntary grouping of departments", which it suggests also for the regions, with the aim of reducing the number of regions to 15. This committee advocates, on the contrary, the suppression of the cantons. Each department has a coat of arms and a flag with which it
1152-678: The Constitutional Council in a specific proceeding brought to the Constitutional Council. As agreed in the 1998 Nouméa Accord , a New Caledonian citizenship was established (in addition to the French citizenship which is kept in parallel, along with the consequent European citizenship) and a self-determination referendum was held in 2018 . Two follow-up referendums were held in 2020 and 2021 . These territories have no permanent civilian population. The residents consist of military personnel, scientific researchers, and support staff. 1 overseas territory ( territoire d'outre-mer , or TOM):
1200-485: The European continent, and the overseas regions, located outside the European continent. Both have the same status and form the most integrated part of the French Republic. As of 1 January 2022 , metropolitan France is divided into the following: Furthermore, as of January 2009 , there exist 2,585 intercommunal structures grouping 34,077 communes (93.2% of all the communes of metropolitan France), with 87.4% of
1248-643: The Paris chapter of the Company of the Holy Sacrament , a Catholic society founded in 1627 by Henri de Levis, duc de Ventadour . It differed from similar organisations in being kept secret, and was suppressed in 1666 when its existence became known. The society disappeared from view until 1865, when a history of the Paris house written by D'Argenson was discovered in the Bibliothèque nationale . In addition to his history of
1296-826: The Republic (all created in 1946) – French Guiana , Guadeloupe , Martinique and Réunion – the total number of departments in the French Republic had become 101. In 2015 the Urban Community of Lyon was split from Rhône to form the Métropole de Lyon , a sui generis entity, with the powers of both an intercommunality and those of a department on its territory, formally classified as a "territorial collectivity with particular status" ( French : collectivité territoriale à statut particulier ) and as such not belonging to any department. As of 2019 Corse-du-Sud and Haute-Corse are still administrative departments, although they no longer have
1344-633: The Sword . As was customary for eldest sons, D'Argenson followed the same career path; in 1642, he became councillor in the Parlement de Normandie, or Rouen , and later Maîtres des Requêtes. He accompanied his father to Venice in 1651, when he was appointed Ambassador to the Venetian Republic . When he died shortly after their arrival in November, D'Argenson replaced him as envoy; in 1655, he fell from favour and
1392-422: The administrative basis for the local organisation of police, fire departments as well as, in certain cases, elections. Each department is administered by an elected body called a departmental council ( sg. conseil départemental , pl. conseils départementaux ). From 1800 to April 2015, these were called general councils ( sg. conseil général , pl. conseils généraux ). Each council has
1440-413: The country's capital city, is a commune as well as a department. In continental France ( metropolitan France , excluding Corsica ), the median land area of a department is 5,965 km (2,303 sq mi), which is two-and-a-half times the median land area of the ceremonial counties of England and the preserved counties of Wales and slightly more than three-and-half times the median land area of
1488-422: The departments. In 2014, President François Hollande proposed abolishing departmental councils by 2020, which would have maintained the departments as administrative divisions, and transferring their powers to other levels of governance. This reform project has since been scrapped. The first French territorial departments were proposed in 1665 by Marc-René d'Argenson to serve as administrative areas purely for
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1536-618: The government; however, regions have gained importance since the 2000s, with some department-level services merged into region-level services. The departments were created in 1790 as a rational replacement of Ancien Régime provinces with a view to strengthen national unity; the title "department" is used to mean a part of a larger whole. Almost all of them were named after physical geographical features (rivers, mountains, or coasts), rather than after historical or cultural territories, which could have their own loyalties, or after their own administrative seats. The division of France into departments
1584-535: The institutional and territorial organization of French territory. These territories are located in many parts of the world. There are many administrative divisions, which may have political ( local government ), electoral (districts), or administrative (decentralized services of the state) objectives. All the inhabited territories are represented in the National Assembly , Senate and Economic and Social Council and their citizens have French citizenship and elect
1632-638: The new Savoyard territory, while the department of Alpes-Maritimes was created from Nice and a portion of the Var department. The 89 departments were given numbers based on the alphabetical order of their names. The department of Bas-Rhin and parts of Meurthe , Moselle , Vosges and Haut-Rhin were ceded to the German Empire in 1871 following France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War . A small part of Haut-Rhin, however, remained French and became known as
1680-407: The numbers corresponded to the alphabetical order of the names of the departments, but several changed their names and some have been divided, so the correspondence became less exact. Alphanumeric codes 2A and 2B were used for Corsica while it was split but it has since reverted to 20. The two-digit code "98" is used by Monaco . Together with the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code FR, the numbers form
1728-459: The population of metropolitan France living in them. These intercommunal structures are: Five overseas regions ( régions d'outre-mer , or ROM), which have the same status as metropolitan regions. The overseas regions are as follows: The French Republic includes five overseas collectivities ( collectivités d'outre-mer , or COM) with a semi-autonomous status: The French Republic includes one autonomous collectivity : New Caledonia's status
1776-478: The prefect retains only the powers that are not delegated to the department councils. In practice, their role has been largely limited to preventing local policy from conflicting with national policy. The departments are further divided into communes , governed by municipal councils . As of 2013, there were 36,681 communes in France. In the overseas territories , some communes play a role at departmental level. Paris ,
1824-489: The regions). New Caledonia is unique as it is not a territorial collectivity. Citizens from all parts of France, including the overseas administrative divisions, vote in national elections ( presidential , legislative ), and all of the collectivities are represented in the Senate . Some areas are the clear responsibility of one level of government (e.g. the state is responsible for international issues), but in other areas it
1872-412: The revolutionary government had turned the departments into transmission belts for policies enacted in Paris. With few exceptions, the departments had this role until the early 1960s. These maps cannot be used as a useful resource of voter preferences, because Departmental Councils are elected on a two-round system, which drastically limits the chances of fringe parties, if they are not supported on one of
1920-428: The status of departmental " territorial collectivities ": region and department functions have been managed by a " single territorial collectivity " since 2018. Despite the intention to avoid the old nomenclature, often the names of pre-1790 provinces remained in use. For example, the name of Berry , though no longer having an official status, remains in widespread use in daily life. The departmental seat of government
1968-573: The territorial gains of the Republic and of the First French Empire . Following the defeats of Napoleon in 1814–1815 the Congress of Vienna returned France to its pre-war size and the number of departments was reduced to 86 (three of the original departments having been split). In 1860 France acquired the County of Nice and Savoy , which led to the creation of three new departments. Two were added from
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2016-479: The title was transferred to D'Argenson, and they had seven children; Marc-René de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson (1652-1721) , Antoinette-Catherine (1654-?), Françoise (?), François-Élie (1656–1728), later Archbishop of Bordeaux , Thérèse-Hélène, Marie-Scholastique (1661-?), and Joseph-Ignace (1662-1690), a member of the Knights Hospitaller . D'Argenson's father was a councillor in the Parlement de Paris , and
2064-455: The two rounds by a moderate party. After the 1992 election, the left had a majority in only 21 of the 100 departments; after the 2011 election, the left dominated 61 of the 100 departments. (Mayotte only became a department after the election.) Key to the parties: The removal of one or more levels of local government has been discussed for some years; in particular, the option of removing the departmental level. Frédéric Lefebvre , spokesman for
2112-528: Was a French administrator and diplomat, who served as ambassador to Venetian Republic from 1651 to 1655. Although his career ended in 1655 for reasons that are unclear, his eldest son Marc-René de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson (1652-1721) became Lieutenant General of Police and Controller-General of Finances , while his grandsons included René Louis d'Argenson , Minister for Foreign Affairs 1744 to 1747, and Marc-Pierre, Comte d'Argenson , Minister of War 1743 to 1747. Marc-René de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson
2160-481: Was a project particularly identified with the French revolutionary leader the Abbé Sieyès , although it had already been frequently discussed and written about by many politicians and thinkers. The earliest known suggestion of it is from 1665 in the writings of d'Argenson . They have inspired similar divisions in many countries, some of them former French colonies. The 1822 territorial division of Spain (reverted due to
2208-660: Was born at Blois on 13 December 1623, eldest son of René de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson and Hélène de La Font. His siblings included Louis (died 1694), Abbott of Beaulieu-en-Rouergue , Pierre, Vicomte de Mouzay , (ca 1625–1709) Governor of New France 1651 to 1655, Jacques (1628-1715), and Madeleine, who married Louis de Bernage, later head of the Grand Conseil . In 1650, he married Marguerite Houlier de La Pouyade; her family were also senior lawyers and administrators in Angoulême , whose titles included Comte de Rouffiac . In 1654,
2256-463: Was created in the regained territory, with slightly different boundaries from the pre-war department of the same name. The reorganisation of Île-de-France in 1968 and the division of Corsica in 1975 added six more departments, raising the total in Metropolitan France to 96. By 2011, when the overseas collectivity of Mayotte became a department, joining the earlier overseas departments of
2304-552: Was replaced by Cardinal Mazarin , who removed him from his office of councillor of state. Although D'Argenson never held office again, he was reinstated as an honorary Maîtres des Requêtes in 1657. His son Marc-René became Lieutenant General of Police and Controller-General of Finances , two of the most important positions in the Ancien Régime . His grandsons included René Louis d'Argenson , Minister for Foreign Affairs , 1744 to 1747, and Marc-Pierre, Comte d'Argenson , Minister of War , 1743 to 1747. In September 1656, he joined
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