Regions of France

France is divided into eighteen administrative regions (, singular or just , ). Twelve of which are located in the Hexagon (in Europe), another one is Corsica, while the other five are overseas regions (not to be confused with the overseas collectivities, which have a semi-autonomous status).

All of the thirteen metropolitan administrative regions (including Corsica ) 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 regional 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 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.Jean-Marie Miossec (2009), Géohistoire de la régionalisation en France, Paris: Presses universitaires de France .

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

+ Region French nameOther local name(s) INSEE No. CapitalDerivation or etymology Alsace Alsatian: 42 Strasbourg 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 Saintongeais : Aguiéne 72 Bordeaux Guyenne and Gascony Auvergne 83 Clermont-Ferrand Former province of Auvergne Brittany Gallo: 53 Rennes Duchy of Brittany Burgundy Burgundian: BregogneBorgoégne 26 Dijon Duchy of Burgundy Centre-Val de LoireNew name as of 17 January 2015; formerly named . 24 Orléans Located in north-central France; straddles the middle of the Loire Valley Champagne-Ardenne 21 Châlons-en-Champagne Former province of Champagne Corsica 94 Ajaccio Franche-Comté Franc-Comtois: Fràntche-Comté 43 Besançon Free County of Burgundy (Franche-Comté) Île-de-France 11 Paris Province of Île-de-France and parts of the former province of Champagne Languedoc-Roussillon 91 Montpellier Former provinces of Languedoc and Roussillon Limousin 74 Limoges Former province of Limousin and parts of Marche, Berry, Auvergne, Poitou and Angoumois Lorraine Lorraine Franconian: 41 Metz Named for Charlemagne's son Lothair I, the kingdom of Lotharingia is etymologically the source for the name Lorraine (duchy), , (Lorraine Franconian) Lower Normandy Norman: 25 CaenWestern half of former province of Normandy Midi-Pyrénées 73 Toulouse None; created for Toulouse Nord-Pas-de-Calais Picard: Nord-Pas-Calés 31 Lille Nord and Pas-de-Calais departments Pays de la Loire 52 Nantes None; created for Nantes Picardy 22 Amiens Former province of Picardy Poitou-Charentes Poitevin and Saintongeais : Poetou-Chérentes 54 Poitiers Former provinces of Angoumois, Aunis, Poitou and Saintonge Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (PACA) (PACA) Provençal: () 93 Marseille Former historical province of Provence and County of Nice annexed by France in 1860. Rhône-Alpes 82 Lyon Created for Lyon from Dauphiné and Lyonnais provinces and Savoy Upper Normandy Norman: 23 Rouen 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.La carte à 13 régions définitivement adoptée, Le Monde, 17 December 2014, accessed 2 January 2015

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 was simply called "Normandy" (Normandie). Permanent names were proposed by the new regional councils by 1 July 2016 and new names confirmed by the by 30 September 2016.Quel nom pour la nouvelle région ? Vous avez choisi..., Sud-Ouest, 4 December 2014, accessed 2 January 2015 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. Two regions, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, opted to retain their interim names.

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

Former region New region Interim name Final name Auvergne Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Rhône-Alpes Burgundy Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Franche-Comté Brittany Centre-Val de Loire Corsica French Guiana Alsace Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine Grand Est Champagne-Ardenne Lorraine Guadeloupe Nord-Pas-de-Calais Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie Hauts-de-France Picardy Île-de-France Martinique Mayotte Lower Normandy Normandy Upper Normandy Aquitaine Aquitaine-Limousin-Poitou-Charentes Nouvelle-Aquitaine Limousin Poitou-Charentes Languedoc-Roussillon Languedoc-Roussillon-Midi-Pyrénées Occitanie Midi-Pyrénées Pays de la Loire Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Réunion

List of administrative regions Type Region Other local name(s)ISOINSEE No. Capital Area (km2) PopulationPopulations légales des régions en vigueur au 1er janvier 2022 Seats in Regional council Former regions (until 2016) President of the Regional Council LocationMetropolitan (Auvergne-Rhône-Alps) FR-ARA 84 Lyon 69,711 204 AuvergneRhône-Alpes Fabrice Pannekoucke (LR) Metropolitan (Burgundy-Free-County) FR-BFC 27 Besançon and Dijon 47,784 100 BurgundyFranche-Comté Marie-Guite Dufay (PS) Metropolitan (Brittany) Gallo: Bertaèyn FR-BRE 53 Rennes 27,208 83 unchanged Loïg Chesnais-Girard (Ind.) Metropolitan (Central-Vale of the Loire) FR-CVL 24 Orléans 39,151 77 unchanged François Bonneau (PS) Metropolitan (Corsica) FR-20R 94 Ajaccio 8,680 63 unchanged Marie-Antoinette Maupertuis (FC) Metropolitan (Greater East) FR-GES 44 Strasbourg 57,441 169 AlsaceChampagne-ArdenneLorraine Franck Leroy (Ind.) Metropolitan (Heights-of-France) FR-HDF 32 Lille 31,806 170 Nord-Pas-de-CalaisPicardy Xavier Bertrand (LR) Metropolitan (Isle-of-France) FR-IDF 11 Paris 12,011 209 unchanged Valérie Pécresse (LR) Metropolitan (Normandy) Norman: Normaundie FR-NOR 28 Caen and Rouen 29,907 102 Upper NormandyLower Normandy Hervé Morin (LC) Metropolitan (New Aquitaine) FR-NAQ 75 Bordeaux 84,036 183 AquitaineLimousinPoitou-Charentes Alain Rousset (PS) Metropolitan (Occitania) FR-OCC 76 Toulouse 72,724 158 Languedoc-RoussillonMidi-Pyrénées Carole Delga (PS) Metropolitan (Lands of the Loire) FR-PDL 52 Nantes 32,082 93 unchanged Christelle Morançais (LR) Metropolitan (Provence-Alps-Azure Coast) FR-PAC 93 Marseille 31,400 123 unchanged Renaud Muselier (RE) Overseas GP 01 Basse-Terre 1,628 41 unchanged Ary Chalus (GUSR) Overseas (French Guiana) GF 03 Cayenne 83,534 51 unchanged Gabriel Serville (PG) Overseas (Réunion) RE 04 Saint-Denis 2,504 45 unchanged Huguette Bello (PLR) Overseas MQ 02 Fort-de-France 1,128 51 unchanged (DVG) Overseas YT 06 Mamoudzou 374 26 unchanged Ben Issa Ousseni (LR) 632,73468,035,0001,910

Role Regions lack separate legislative authority and therefore cannot write their own statutory law. They levy their own taxes and, in return, receive 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 Map1986521 – 19924211 199810151 20042321 2010233 – 2015 7 8 2 2021 6 8 4

Overseas regions Overseas region () 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:

in the Indian Ocean (Africa): Mayotte Réunion in the Americas: French Guiana in South America Guadeloupe in the Antilles (Caribbean) Martinique in the Antilles (Caribbean)

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

Regions of France

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