President: Francois Hollande Prime minister: Jean-Marc Ayrault
President: Barack Obama
Population
65,630,692
313,847,465
Life Expectancy
81.460 years
78.490 years
Capital City
Paris
Washington, DC
Largest city
Paris (population: 2,138,550)
New York City (population: 8,008,280)
Human Development Index
0.955
0.95
GDP per capita
$35,600 US
$49,000 US
Literacy Rate
99%
99%
Corruption Perception Index
6.9
7.3
Percentage of Women in Parliament
19.6%
16.6%
Wealthiest Citizens
Bernard Arnault ($16.5bn US)
William Gates III ($40.0bn US)
Unemployment Rate
9.300%
9.000%
Death Penalty
Abolished
Legal
Political System
republic
Constitution-based federal republic; strong democratic tradition
Independence date
486 (Frankish tribes unified); 843 (Western Francia established from the division of the Carolingian Empire)
4 July 1776 (from Great Britain)
Religions
Roman Catholic 83%-88%, Protestant 2%, Jewish 1%, Muslim 5%-10%, unaffiliated 4% overseas departments: Roman Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, pagan
Protestant 51.3%, Roman Catholic 23.9%, Mormon 1.7%, other Christian 1.6%, Jewish 1.7%, Buddhist 0.7%, Muslim 0.6%, other or unspecified 2.5%, unaffiliated 12.1%, none 4% (2007 est.)
Languages
French 100%, rapidly declining regional dialects and languages (Provencal, Breton, Alsatian, Corsican, Catalan, Basque, Flemish) overseas departments: French, Creole patois
English 82.1%, Spanish 10.7%, other Indo-European 3.8%, Asian and Pacific island 2.7%, other 0.7% (2000 census) note: Hawaiian is an official language in the state of Hawaii
Exports
machinery and transportation equipment, aircraft, plastics, chemicals, pharmaceutical products, iron and steel, beverages
euros (EUR) per US dollar - 0.6799 (2008 est.), 0.7345 (2007), 0.7964 (2006), 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004)
Military Budget as percentage of GDP
2.600%
4.060%
Beijing Olympics Medal Count
40
110
Location
Western Europe, bordering the Bay of Biscay and English Channel, between Belgium and Spain, southeast of the UK; bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Italy and Spain
North America, bordering both the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Pacific Ocean, between Canada and Mexico
Area
643,801 km sq
9,826,675 km sq
Coastline
0 km
19,924 km
Climate
mostly temperate, but tropical in Hawaii and Florida, arctic in Alaska, semiarid in the great plains west of the Mississippi River, and arid in the Great Basin of the southwest; low winter temperatures in the northwest are ameliorated occasionally in January and February by warm chinook winds from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains
