France’s annual rate of population growth of 0.33 percent is low compared to most of the world. In 1800 France was the most populous nation in western Europe. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the birth rate in France declined relative to that of the rest of Europe, and the French population grew slowly. By the mid-20th century the population of France had fallen behind that of Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy. (France’s population narrowly surpassed Italy’s in the 1990s). The slow growth of the French population can be partly attributed to the bloody wars of the Napoleonic era in the early 19th century and the two world wars in the 20th century. The early and wide-scale adoption of birth control by the French people also slowed population growth. Immigration, especially from Europe and North Africa, was a major source of French population growth during the 20th century. The population of France is projected to gradually begin declining sometime during the early 21st century.

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The age structure of France changed dramatically in the late 20th century, with elderly people accounting for an ever larger share of the total population. The segment of the population between the ages of 0 and 14 declined from 26.4 percent in 1960 to 18.2 percent in 2007, while the number of people aged 65 or older increased from 11.6 percent to 16.4 percent. The number of older people is growing in France, as it is in most industrialized nations, as a result of the low birth rate and medical advances that have prolonged life. Life expectancy in France is now 83.7 years for females—one of the highest expected longevities in the world—and 76.2 years for males. France’s infant mortality rate (the number of infants per 1,000 who die before the age of 1) is 4.2, one of the world’s lowest.

I. Introduction

France, major industrialized nation in western Europe. France is the third largest country in Europe, after Russia and Ukraine, and the fourth most populous. Officially the French Republic (République Française), the nation includes ten overseas possessions, most of them remnants of France’s former colonial empire. Paris is the nation’s capital and largest city.

Roughly hexagonal in shape, France shares boundaries with Belgium and Luxembourg to the northeast; Germany, Switzerland, and Italy to the east; and Spain and Andorra to the southwest. In the northwest, France is bounded by the English Channel. At the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the channel, France and England are separated by just 34 km (21 mi). France faces three major seas: the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the North Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the southeast.

France is a nation of varied landscapes, ranging from coastal lowlands and broad plains in the north, to hilly uplands in south central France, to lush valleys and towering, snow-capped Alps in the east. Mountainous and hilly areas lie on nearly all of France’s borders, creating a series of natural boundaries for the country. Only the nation’s northeastern border is largely unprotected. Several major rivers drain France, including the Seine, Loire, Garonne, and Rhône.