Departments of France
Departments of France Départements ( | |
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Location | France |
Found in | Regions |
Number | 101 (not including Metropolis of Lyon) (as of January 2021) |
Possible types | |
Populations | Largest: Nord, Hauts-de-France—2,613,000 (2022 census) Smallest: Lozère, Occitanie—83,000 (2022 census) |
Areas | Largest: French Guiana—83,533.9 km2 (32,252.6 sq mi) Smallest: Paris, Île-de-France—105.4 km2 (40.7 sq mi) |
Densities | Largest: Paris, Île-de-France—20,755/km2 (53,760/sq mi) Smallest: French Guiana—3.5/km2 (9.1/sq mi) |
Government | |
Subdivisions |
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In the
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).[2] Each council has 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.[3] Local services of the state administration are traditionally organised at departmental level, where the prefect represents 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
Most French departments are assigned a two-digit number, the Official Geographical Code, allocated by the
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.[11] This reform project has since been scrapped.
History
The first French territorial departments were proposed in 1665 by Marc-René d'Argenson to serve as administrative areas purely for the Ponts et Chaussées (Bridges and Highways) infrastructure administration.[12]
Before the
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 the National Constituent Assembly.[13] Their boundaries served two purposes:
- Boundaries were chosen to break up France's historical regions in an attempt to erase cultural differences and build a more homogeneous nation.
- Boundaries were set so that every settlement in the country was within a day's ride of the capital of a department. This was a security measure, intended to keep the entire national territory under close control.
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.[14] The provinces continued to exist administratively until 21 September 1791.[13]
The number of departments, initially 83, had been increased to 130 by 1809 with the territorial gains of the Republic and of the First French Empire.[15] 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.[16] Two were added from the new Savoyard territory, while the department of Alpes-Maritimes was created from Nice and a portion of the Var department.[16] The 89 departments were given numbers based on the alphabetical order of their names.[17]
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 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 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
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.
General characteristics
Government and administration
The departmental seat of government 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 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
The departments are further divided into
In continental France (metropolitan France, excluding Corsica), the median land area of a department is 5,965 km2 (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 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 km2 (1500 to 3000 sq. mi.), and a population between 320,000 and 1 million. The largest in area is Gironde (10,000 km2 (3,900 sq mi).), while the smallest is the city of Paris (105 km2 (41 sq mi).). The most populous is Nord (2,550,000) and the least populous is Lozère (74,000).
Numbering
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 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 the ISO 3166-2 country subdivision codes for the metropolitan departments. The overseas departments have three digits.[citation needed]
Relation to national government
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, 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.
Political party preferences
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 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.)
-
Party affiliation of the General Council Presidents of the various departments in the cantonal elections of 1998
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Party affiliation of the General Council Presidents of the various departments in the elections of 2001
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Party affiliation of the General Council Presidents of the various departments in the elections of 2004
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Party affiliation of the General Council Presidents of the various departments in the elections of 2008
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Party affiliation of the General Council Presidents of the various departments in the elections of 2011
-
Party affiliation of the General Council Presidents of the various departments in the elections of 2015
Key to the parties:
- Divers Centre = Independents of the centre or Democratic Movement (Mouvement démocrate)
- Divers Droite (DVD) = Independent conservatives
- Divers Gauche (DVG) = Independent left-wing politicians
- MPF = Movement for France (Mouvement pour la France) (right)
- Nouveau Centre = New Centre(centre or centre-right)
- PCF = French Communist Party (Parti communiste français)
- PRG = Radical Party of the Left (Parti radical de gauche)
- PS = Socialist Party (Parti socialiste)
- UDF = Union for French Democracy (Union pour la démocratie française) succeeded by Democratic Movement
- UMP = Union for a Popular Movement (Union pour un mouvement populaire)
Future
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 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.[18]
In January 2008, the Attali Commission recommended that the departmental level of government should be eliminated within ten years.[19]
Nevertheless, 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.[20] This committee advocates, on the contrary, the suppression of the cantons.[20]
Maps and tables
Current departments
Each department has a coat of arms and a flag with which it is commonly associated, though not all are officially recognised or used.
Notes:
|
Former departments
Former departments of the current territory of France
No. | Department | Prefecture | Dates in existence | Named after | Subsequent history |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
– | Rhône-et-Loire | Lyon | 1790–1793 | Loire rivers
|
Divided into Rhône and Loire. |
– | Corse
|
Bastia | 1790–1793 | Island of Corsica | Divided into Golo and Liamone. |
– | Golo | Bastia | 1793–1811 | Golo (river) | Reunited with Corse .
|
– | Liamone | Ajaccio | 1793–1811 | Liamone (river) | Reunited with Corse .
|
– | Mont-Blanc | Chambéry | 1792–1815 | Mont Blanc mountain | Formed from part of the Duchy of Savoy, a territory of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia which was restored to its former status at the Treaty of Paris (1815). The territory returned to French rule in 1860 and it corresponds approximately to the present departments of Savoie and Haute-Savoie. |
– | Léman | Geneva | 1798–1814 | Lake Geneva | Formed when the Republic of Geneva was annexed into the . |
– | Meurthe | Nancy | 1790–1871 | Meurthe (river) | Ceased to exist following the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine by the German Empire in 1871 and was not recreated after the province was restored to France by the Treaty of Versailles .
|
75 | Seine | Paris | 1790–1967 | Seine (river)
|
Divided into four new departments on 1 January 1968: Paris, Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, and Val-de-Marne (the last also incorporating a small amount of territory from Seine-et-Oise). |
78 | Seine-et-Oise | Versailles | 1790–1967 | Seine and Oise rivers
|
Divided into four new departments on 1 January 1968: Yvelines, Val-d'Oise, Essonne, Val-de-Marne (the last largely comprising territory from Seine). |
20 | Corse
|
Ajaccio | 1811–1975 | Island of Corsica | Divided into Corse-du-Sud and Haute-Corse. |
975 | Saint Pierre and Miquelon | Saint-Pierre | 1976–1985 | Islands of Miquelon
|
Converted to an overseas collectivity. |
Departments of Algeria (Départements d'Algérie)
Unlike the rest of the French possessions in Africa, Algeria was divided into overseas departments from 1848 until its independence in 1962. These departments were supposed to be "assimilated" or "integrated" to France sometime in the future.
|
|
Departments in former French colonies
Department | Named after | Current location | Dates in existence |
---|---|---|---|
Département du Sud | South cardinal direction | Haiti | 1795–1800 |
Département d'Inganne | Dominican Republic, Haiti | 1795–1800 | |
Département du Nord | North cardinal direction | Haiti | 1795–1800 |
Département de l'Ouest | West cardinal direction | Haiti | 1795–1800 |
Département de Samana | Samaná Bay | Dominican Republic | 1795–1800 |
Saint Lucia | Island of St Lucia
|
Saint Lucia, Tobago | 1795–1800 |
Île de France | Island of Mauritius | Mauritius, Seychelles | 1795–1800 |
Indes-Orientales | India and East cardinal direction | India:
|
1795–1800 |
Departments of the Napoleonic Empire in Europe
There are a number of former departments in territories conquered by France during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Empire that are now not part of France:
Department | Prefecture (French name if different) |
Named after | Current location1 | Contemporary location2 | Dates in existence |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mont-Terrible | Porrentruy | Mont Terri mountain | Switzerland France (Doubs) |
Holy Roman Empire: | 1793–1800 |
Dyle | Brussels Bruxelles |
Dyle (river) | Belgium | Austrian Netherlands: | 1795–1814 |
Escaut | Ghent Gand |
Scheldt river | Belgium Netherlands |
Austrian Netherlands: | 1795–1814 |
Forêts | Luxembourg
|
Ardennes forest
|
Luxembourg Belgium Germany |
Austrian Netherlands: | 1795–1814 |
Jemmape | Mons | Battle of Jemappes | Belgium | Austrian Netherlands: | 1795–1814 |
Lys | Bruges | Lys (river) | Austrian Netherlands: | 1795–1814 | |
Meuse-Inférieure | Maastricht Maëstricht |
Meuse river | Belgium Netherlands |
Austrian Netherlands:
|
1795–1814 |
Deux-Nèthes | Antwerp Anvers |
Two branches of the Nete (river) | Austrian Netherlands:
|
1795–1814 | |
Ourthe | Liège | Ourthe river | Belgium Germany |
Austrian Netherlands:
|
1795–1814 |
Sambre-et-Meuse | Namur | Sambre and Meuse rivers | Belgium | Austrian Netherlands: | 1795–1814 |
Corcyre | Corfu Corfou |
Island of Corfu (archaic French form) |
Greece | Republic of Venice 4
|
1797–1799 |
Ithaque | Argostoli | Island of Ithaca | 1797–1798 | ||
Mer-Égée | Zakynthos Zante |
Aegean Sea | 1797–1798 | ||
Mont-Tonnerre | Mainz Mayence |
Donnersberg mountain | Germany | Holy Roman Empire:
Electorate of the Palatinate
|
1801–1814 |
Rhin-et-Moselle | Koblenz Coblence |
Moselle rivers
|
Holy Roman Empire:
Electorate of the Palatinate
|
1801–1814 | |
Roer | Aachen Aix-la-Chapelle |
Roer river | Germany Netherlands |
Holy Roman Empire:
Imperial Free City of Wesel (after 1805)
|
1801–1814 |
Sarre | Trier Trèves |
Saar (river) | Belgium Germany |
Holy Roman Empire:
|
1801–1814 |
Doire
|
Ivrea Ivrée |
Dora Baltea river | Italy | Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia: | 1802–1814 |
Marengo | Alessandria Alexandrie |
Battle of Marengo | 1802–1814 | ||
Pô | Turin | Po (river) | 1802–1814 | ||
Sésia | Vercelli Verceil |
Sesia river | 1802–1814 | ||
Stura | Cuneo Coni |
Stura di Demonte river | 1802–1814 | ||
Tanaro6 | Asti | Tanaro (river)
|
1802–1805 | ||
Apennins | Chiavari | Apennine mountains
|
Republic of Genoa7 | 1805–1814 | |
Gênes | Genoa Gênes |
City of Genoa | 1805–1814 | ||
Montenotte
|
Savona Savone |
Battle of Montenotte | 1805–1814 | ||
Arno | Florence | Arno (river)
|
Grand Duchy of Tuscany8 | 1808–1814 | |
Méditerranée | Livorno Livourne |
Mediterranean Sea | 1808–1814 | ||
Ombrone | Siena Sienne |
Ombrone river | 1808–1814 | ||
Taro | Parma Parme |
Taro (river) | Holy Roman Empire:
|
1808–1814 | |
Rome9 | Rome | City of Rome | Papal States | 1809–1814 | |
Trasimène | Spoleto Spolète |
Lake Trasimeno | 1809–1814 | ||
Bouches-du-Rhin | 's-Hertogenbosch Bois-le-Duc |
Rhine river | Netherlands | Dutch Republic:10
|
1810–1814 |
Bouches-de-l'Escaut | Middelburg Middelbourg |
Scheldt river | Dutch Republic:10 | 1810–1814 | |
Simplon | Sion | Simplon Pass | Switzerland | République des Sept-Dizains 11
|
1810–1814 |
Bouches-de-la-Meuse | The Hague La Haye |
Meuse river | Netherlands | Dutch Republic:10 | 1811–1814 |
Bouches-de-l'Yssel | Zwolle | IJssel river | Dutch Republic:10 | 1811–1814 | |
Ems-Occidental | Groningen Groningue |
Ems (river) | Netherlands Germany |
Dutch Republic:10
|
1811–1814 |
Ems-Oriental | Aurich | Ems (river) | Germany | Holy Roman Empire: | 1811–1814 |
Frise | Leeuwarden Leuwarden |
Friesland region | Netherlands | Dutch Republic:10 | 1811–1814 |
Yssel-Supérieur | Arnhem | IJssel river | Dutch Republic:10
|
1811–1814 | |
Zuyderzée | Amsterdam | Zuiderzee inlet | Dutch Republic:10 | 1811–1814 | |
Bouches-de-l'Elbe | Hamburg Hambourg |
Elbe river | Germany | Holy Roman Empire: | 1811–1814 |
Bouches-du-Weser | Bremen Brême |
Weser river | Holy Roman Empire: | 1811–1814 | |
Ems-Supérieur | Osnabrück | Ems (river) | Holy Roman Empire:
|
1811–1814 | |
Lippe12 | Münster Munster |
Lippe (river) | Holy Roman Empire:
|
1811–1814 | |
Bouches-de-l'Èbre | Lleida Lérida |
Ebro river
|
Spain | Kingdom of Spain: | 1812–1813 |
Montserrat | Barcelona Barcelone |
Montserrat (mountain) | 1812–1813 | ||
Sègre | Puigcerdà Puigcerda |
Segre (river) | 1812–1813 | ||
Ter | Girona Gérone |
Ter (river) | 1812–1813 | ||
Bouches-de-l'Èbre-Montserrat | Barcelona Barcelone |
Ebro river and Montserrat mountain | Previously the departments of Bouches-de-l'Èbre and Montserrat | 1813–1814 | |
Sègre-Ter | Girona Gérone |
Segre and Ter rivers | Previously the departments of Sègre and Ter | 1813–1814 |
Notes for Table 7:
- Where a Napoleonic department was composed of parts from more than one country, the nation-state containing the prefecture is listed. Please expand this table to list all countries containing significant parts of the department.
- Territories that were a part of Austrian Netherlands were also a part of Holy Roman Empire.
- The Canton of Basel.
- The second period of French rule lasted until 1810/14, after which these territories became a British protectorate, as the United States of the Ionian Islands
- Maastricht was a condominium of the Dutch Republic and the Prince-Bishopric of Liège.
- On 6 June 1805, as a result of the annexation of the Montenotte and Stura.
- Before becoming the department of successor state, the Ligurian Republic.
- Before becoming the department of successor state, the Kingdom of Etruria.
- Rome was known as the department du Tibre until 1810.
- Before becoming the departments of successor state, the Batavian Republic (1795–1806), then those territories that had not already been annexed (all except the first two departments here), along with the Prussian County of East Frisia, were converted to another puppet state, the Kingdom of Holland.
- Before becoming the department of Simplon, the République des Sept Dizains was converted to a revolutionary République du Valais (16 March 1798) which was swiftly incorporated (1 May 1798) into the puppet Helvetic Republic until 1802 when it became the independent Rhodanic Republic.
- In the months before arrondissements of Rees and Münster were part of Yssel-Supérieur, the arrondissement of Steinfurt was part of Bouches-de-l'Yssel and the arrondissement of Neuenhaus was part of Ems-Occidental.
See also
- ISO 3166-2:FR
- List of French departments by population, area and population density
- Overseas departments and regions of France
References
- ^ "Code officiel géographique au 1er janvier 2021 | Insee". insee.fr. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
- ^ Ministère de l'intérieur, Les élections départementales : comprendre ce qui change (in French), archived from the original on 10 August 2016, retrieved 30 July 2015
- ^ "Quelles sont les compétences des départements ?". Vie publique.fr (in French). Retrieved 5 November 2021.
- ^ 83 départements sont créés en France (in French), retrieved 5 November 2021
- ISBN 978-2-321-00013-6.
- ^ "Sous le Sénat de l'Empire – Personnalités – Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès – Sénat". senat.fr. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
- ^ "Création du département" (in French). Archives départementales du Puy-de-Dôme. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
- ^ "Carte de France à la révolution: création des départements". cartesfrance.fr. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
- ISBN 978-2-8271-0983-8.
- ^ "🔎 Code INSEE : définition et explications". Techno-Science.net (in French). Retrieved 5 November 2021.
- ^ "François Hollande fixe les régions à 14 et la fin des départements à 2020". La Gazette des Communes (in French). Retrieved 5 November 2021.
- )
- ^ ISSN 0003-4436.
- ^ "Le nom des départements". Le Monde. 11 December 1999.
- ^ See Provinces of the Netherlands for the annexed Dutch departments.
- ^ a b "24 mars 1860 - La France reçoit Nice et la Savoie - Herodote.net". herodote.net. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
- ^ "Départements 1867". crohee.chez.com. Archived from the original on 5 November 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
- ^ "La fusion département-région n'est pas à l'ordre du jour". L'Express. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
- ^ Report of the Attali Commission[permanent dead link] "Decision 260", p. 197 (in French)
- ^ a b "Les 20 propositions du Comité (20 propositions of the Committee)" (in French). Committee for the reform of local authorities. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 11 November 2009.
- ^ "Mayotte - Histoire". Ministère des Outre-mer. 25 November 2016. Archived from the original on 20 October 2021. Retrieved 20 October 2021.