Regions of France

France is divided into eighteen administrative regions (French: régions, singular région [ʁeʒjɔ̃]), of which thirteen are located in metropolitan France (in Europe), while the other five are overseas regions (not to be confused with the overseas collectivities, which have a semi-autonomous status).[1]

France's Regions
Région française (French)
CategoryUnitary republic
LocationFrance
Number18
Possible status
  • Overseas region (région d'outre-mer) (5)
Additional status
  • Territorial collectivity (collectivité territoriale)
Populations279,471 (Mayotte) – 12,997,058 (Île-de-France)
Areas376 km2 (145 sq mi) (Mayotte) – 84,061 km2 (32,456 sq mi) (Nouvelle-Aquitaine)
Government
Subdivisions
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Overseas France
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All of the thirteen metropolitan administrative regions (including Corsica as of 2019) are further subdivided into two to thirteen administrative departments, with the prefect of each region's administrative centre's department also acting as the regional prefect. The overseas regions administratively consist of only one department each and hence also have the status of overseas departments.

Most administrative regions also have the status of regional territorial collectivities, which comes with a local government, with departmental and communal collectivities below the region level. The exceptions are Corsica, French Guiana, Mayotte and Martinique, where region and department functions are managed by single local governments having consolidated jurisdiction and which are known as single territorial collectivities.

History

1982–2015

The term région was officially created by the Law of Decentralisation (2 March 1982), which also gave regions their legal status. The first direct elections for regional representatives took place on 16 March 1986.[2]

Between 1982 and 2015, there were 22 regions in Metropolitan France. Before 2011, there were four overseas regions (French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Réunion); in 2011 Mayotte became the fifth.

Regions of France between 2011 and 2015
Regions in Metropolitan France between 1982 and 2015
Flag[3] Region French name Other local name(s) Capital INSEE No.[4] Derivation or etymology
Alsace Alsace Alsatian: Elsàss
German: Elsass		 Strasbourg 42 Formerly a coalition of free cities in Holy Roman Empire, attached to Kingdom of France in 1648; annexed by Germany from Franco-Prussian war to the end of World War I and briefly during World War II
Aquitaine Aquitaine Occitan: Aquitània
Basque: Akitania
Saintongeais : Aguiéne		 Bordeaux 72 Guyenne and Gascony
Auvergne Auvergne Occitan: Auvèrnhe / Auvèrnha Clermont-Ferrand 83 Former province of Auvergne
Brittany Bretagne Breton: Breizh
Gallo: Bertaèyn		 Rennes 53 Duchy of Brittany
Burgundy Bourgogne Burgundian: Bregogne / Borgoégne
Arpitan: Borgogne		 Dijon 26 Duchy of Burgundy
Centre-Val de Loire[5] Centre-Val de Loire Orléans 24 Located in north-central France; straddles the middle of the Loire Valley
Champagne-Ardenne Champagne-Ardenne Châlons-en-
Champagne		 21 Former province of Champagne
Corsica Corse Ajaccio 94
Franche-Comté Franche-Comté Franc-Comtois: Fràntche-Comté
Arpitan: Franche-Comtât		 Besançon 43 Free County of Burgundy (Franche-Comté)
Île-de-France Île-de-France Paris 11 Province of Île-de-France and parts of the former province of Champagne
Languedoc-Roussillon Languedoc-Roussillon Occitan: Lengadòc-Rosselhon
Catalan: Llenguadoc-Rosselló		 Montpellier 91 Former provinces of Languedoc and Roussillon
Limousin Limousin Occitan: Lemosin Limoges 74 Former province of Limousin and parts of Marche, Berry, Auvergne, Poitou and Angoumois
Lorraine Lorraine German: Lothringen
Lorraine Franconian: Lottringe		 Metz 41 Named for Charlemagne's son Lothair I, the kingdom of Lotharingia is etymologically the source for the name Lorraine (duchy), Lothringen (German), Lottringe (Lorraine Franconian)
Lower Normandy Basse-Normandie Norman: Basse-Normaundie Caen 25 Western half of former province of Normandy
Midi-Pyrénées Midi-Pyrénées Occitan: Miègjorn-Pirenèus
Occitan: Mieidia-Pirenèus		 Toulouse 73 None; created for Toulouse
Nord-Pas-de-Calais Nord-Pas-de-Calais Lille 31 Nord and Pas-de-Calais departments
Pays de la Loire Pays de la Loire Breton: Broioù al Liger Nantes 52 None; created for Nantes
Picardy Picardie Amiens 22 Former province of Picardy
Poitou-Charentes Poitou-Charentes Occitan: Peitau-Charantas
Poitevin and Saintongeais : Poetou-Chérentes		 Poitiers 54 Former provinces of Angoumois, Aunis, Poitou and Saintonge
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (PACA) Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (PACA) Provençal: Provença-Aups-Còsta d'Azur
(Prouvènço-Aup-Costo d'Azur)		 Marseille 93 Former historical province of Provence and County of Nice annexed by France in 1860.
Rhône-Alpes Rhône-Alpes Arpitan: Rôno-Arpes
Occitan: Ròse Aups		 Lyon 82 Created for Lyon from Dauphiné and Lyonnais provinces and Savoy
Upper Normandy Haute-Normandie Norman: Ĥâote-Normaundie Rouen 23 Eastern half of former province of Normandy

Reform and mergers of regions

In 2014, the French parliament passed a law reducing the number of metropolitan regions from 22 to 13 effective 1 January 2016.[6]

The law gave interim names for most of the new regions by combining the names of the former regions, e.g. the region composed of Aquitaine, Poitou-Charentes and Limousin was temporarily called Aquitaine-Limousin-Poitou-Charentes. However, the combined region of Upper and Lower Normandy is simply called "Normandy" (Normandie). Permanent names were proposed by the new regional councils by 1 July 2016 and new names confirmed by the Conseil d'État by 30 September 2016.[7][8] The legislation defining the new regions also allowed the Centre region to officially change its name to "Centre-Val de Loire" with effect from January 2015.[9] Two regions, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, opted to retain their interim names.[10][11]

  • Overview of merger proposals for the metropolitan territory
  • Édouard Balladur's proposal
  • Manuel Valls's proposal A
  • Manuel Valls's proposal B
  • President François Hollande's proposal
  • Regions as instituted by the National Assembly in 2014

Given below is a table of former regions and which new region they became part of.

Former regionNew region
Interim nameFinal name
AuvergneAuvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Rhône-Alpes
BurgundyBourgogne-Franche-Comté
Franche-Comté
Brittany
Centre-Val de Loire
Corsica
French Guiana
AlsaceAlsace-Champagne-Ardenne-LorraineGrand Est
Champagne-Ardenne
Lorraine
Guadeloupe
Nord-Pas-de-CalaisNord-Pas-de-Calais-PicardieHauts-de-France
Picardy
Île-de-France
Martinique
Mayotte
Lower NormandyNormandy
Upper Normandy
AquitaineAquitaine-Limousin-Poitou-CharentesNouvelle-Aquitaine
Limousin
Poitou-Charentes
Languedoc-RoussillonLanguedoc-Roussillon-Midi-PyrénéesOccitanie
Midi-Pyrénées
Pays de la Loire
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Réunion

List of administrative regions
Type Region Other local name(s) Capital Area (km2) Population[lower-alpha 1][12] Seats

in Regional council

 INSEE No.[13] Former regions (until 2016) President of the corresponding territorial collectivity's legislature Location
Metropolitan region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
(Auvergne-Rhône-Alps)		 Occitan: Auvèrnhe-Ròse-Aups
Arpitan: Ôvèrgne-Rôno-Arpes		 Lyon 69,711
8,042,936
 204 84 Auvergne
Rhône-Alpes		 Laurent Wauquiez (LR)
Metropolitan region Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
(Burgundy-Free County)		 Arpitan: Borgogne-Franche-Comtât Dijon 47,784
2,805,580
 100 27 Burgundy
Franche-Comté		 Marie-Guite Dufay (PS)
Metropolitan region Bretagne
(Brittany)		 Breton: Breizh
Gallo: Bertaèyn		 Rennes 27,208
3,354,854
 83 53 unchanged Loïg Chesnais-Girard (PS)
Metropolitan region Centre-Val de Loire[5]
(Centre-Loire Valley)		 Orléans 39,151
2,573,180
 77 24 unchanged François Bonneau (PS)
Metropolitan region Corse
(Corsica)		 Corsican: Corsica Ajaccio 8,680
340,440
 63 94 unchanged Jean-Guy Talamoni (CL)
Metropolitan region Grand Est
(Great East)		 German: Großer Osten Strasbourg 57,441
5,556,219
 169 44 Alsace
Champagne-Ardenne
Lorraine		 Jean Rottner (LR)
Metropolitan region Hauts-de-France
(Upper France)		 Lille 31,806
6,004,947
 170 32 Nord-Pas-de-Calais
Picardy		 Xavier Bertrand (LR)
Metropolitan region Île-de-France
(Island of France)		 Paris 12,011
12,997,058
 209 11 unchanged Valérie Pécresse (LR)
Metropolitan region Normandie
(Normandy)		 Norman: Normaundie Rouen 29,907
3,325,032
 102 28 Upper Normandy
Lower Normandy		 Hervé Morin (LC)
Metropolitan region Nouvelle-Aquitaine
(New Aquitaine)		 Occitan: Nòva Aquitània / Nava Aquitània / Novela Aquitània
Basque: Akitania Berria
 Bordeaux 84,036
6,010,289
 183 75 Aquitaine
Limousin
Poitou-Charentes		 Alain Rousset (PS)
Metropolitan region Occitanie

(Occitania)

 Occitan: Occitània
Catalan: Occitània		 Toulouse 72,724
5,933,185
 158 76 Languedoc-Roussillon
Midi-Pyrénées		 Carole Delga (PS)
Metropolitan region Pays de la Loire
(Loire Countries)		 Breton: Broioù al Liger Nantes 32,082
3,806,461
 93 52 unchanged Christelle Morançais (LR)
Metropolitan region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
(Provence-Alps-Azure Coast)		 Provençal: Provença-Aups-Còsta d'Azur
(Prouvènço-Aup-Costo d'Azur)		 Marseille 31,400
5,081,101
 123 93 unchanged Renaud Muselier (LR)
Overseas region Guadeloupe Antillean Creole: Gwadloup Basse-Terre 1,628
384,239
 41 01 unchanged Ary Chalus (GUSR)
Overseas region Guyane
(French Guiana)		 Cayenne 83,534
281,678
 51 03 unchanged Rodolphe Alexandre (PSG)
Overseas region La Réunion
(Réunion)		 Reunion Creole: La Rényon Saint-Denis 2,504
861,210
 45 04 unchanged Didier Robert (LR)
Overseas region Martinique Antillean Creole: Matinik Fort-de-France 1,128
364,508
 51 02 unchanged Claude Lise (RDM)
Overseas region Mayotte Shimaore: Maore
Malagasy: Mahori		 Mamoudzou 374 26 06 unchanged Soibahadine Ibrahim Ramadani (LR)
632,734 68,035,000 1,910

Role

Regions lack separate legislative authority and therefore cannot write their own statutory law. They levy their own taxes and, in return, receive a decreasing part of their budget from the central government, which gives them a portion of the taxes it levies. They also have considerable budgets managed by a regional council (conseil régional) made up of representatives voted into office in regional elections.

A region's primary responsibility is to build and furnish high schools. In March 2004, the French central government unveiled a controversial plan to transfer regulation of certain categories of non-teaching school staff to the regional authorities. Critics of this plan contended that tax revenue was insufficient to pay for the resulting costs, and that such measures would increase regional inequalities.

In addition, regions have considerable discretionary power over infrastructural spending, e.g., education, public transit, universities and research, and assistance to business owners. This has meant that the heads of wealthy regions such as Île-de-France or Rhône-Alpes can be high-profile positions.

Proposals to give regions limited legislative autonomy have met with considerable resistance; others propose transferring certain powers from the departments to their respective regions, leaving the former with limited authority.

Regional control

Number of regions controlled by each coalition since 1986.

Elections Presidencies Map
  Left
  Right
  Other
1986 5 21 –
1992 4 21 1
1998 10 15 1
2004 23 2 1
2010 23 3 –
2015 7 8 2
2021 6 8 4

Overseas regions

Overseas region (French: Région d'outre-mer) is a recent designation, given to the overseas departments that have similar powers to those of the regions of metropolitan France. As integral parts of the French Republic, they are represented in the National Assembly, Senate and Economic and Social Council, elect a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and use the euro as their currency.

Although these territories have had these political powers since 1982, when France's decentralisation policy dictated that they be given elected regional councils along with other regional powers, the designation overseas regions dates only to the 2003 constitutional change; indeed, the new wording of the constitution aims to give no precedence to either appellation overseas department or overseas region, although the second is still virtually unused by French media.

The following have overseas region status:

^ Saint Pierre and Miquelon (off Canada, in North America), once an overseas department, was demoted to a territorial collectivity in 1985.

See also
  • List of current presidents of the regional councils of France and the Corsican Assembly
  • Ranked list of French regions
  • Administrative divisions of France
  • List of French regions and overseas collectivities by GDP
  • List of French regions by Human Development Index
  • List of regions of France by population
  • Flags of the regions of France
  • ISO 3166-2:FR

General:

Overseas

Notes
  1. As of 1 January 2022
  2. As of 2017

References
  1. "Statistiques locales: France par région" (in French). INSEE. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
  2. Jean-Marie Miossec (2009), Géohistoire de la régionalisation en France, Paris: Presses universitaires de France ISBN 978-2-13-056665-6.
  3. These flags are not official.
  4. "Code officiel géographique au 1er janvier 2014: Liste des régions". INSEE.
  5. New name as of 17 January 2015; formerly named Centre.
  6. La carte à 13 régions définitivement adoptée, Le Monde, 17 December 2014, accessed 2 January 2015
  7. Quel nom pour la nouvelle région ? Vous avez choisi..., Sud-Ouest, 4 December 2014, accessed 2 January 2015
  8. "Nouveau nom de la région : dernier jour de vote, Occitanie en tête". midilibre.fr.
  9. "Journal officiel of 17 January 2015". Légifrance (in French). 17 January 2015. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  10. "Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes : fini la consultation, Laurent Wauquiez a tranché - Place Gre'net". placegrenet.fr. 31 May 2016.
  11. "Région Bourgogne-Franche-Comté". www.bourgognefranchecomte.fr.
  12. Populations légales des régions en vigueur au 1er janvier 2022
  13. "La nouvelle nomenclature des codes régions" (in French). INSEE. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  14. Populations légales des communes de Mayotte en 2017
Overseas regions
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