Originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or "realm of the Franks". Modern France is still named today Francia in Italian and Spanish, while Frankreich in German,

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Prehistory (before the 6th century BC)
The oldest traces of human life in what is now France date from approximately 1.8 million years ago. Over the ensuing millennia, humans were confronted by a harsh and variable climate, marked by several

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Location and borders
The vast majority of France's territory and population is situated in Western Europe and is called Metropolitan France, to distinguish it from the country's various overseas polities. It is bordered by the North Seain

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Government
France is representative democracy organised as a unitary, semi-presidential republic. As one of the earliest republics of the modern world,

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France has a mixed economy characterised by a sizeable government involvement, diverse sectors, a skilled labour force and high innovation. It is a member of the Group of Seven leading industrialised countries and an economic power. For roughly two centuries, the

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With an estimated May 2021 population of 67.413 million people, France is the 20th most populous country in the world, the third-most populous in Europe (after Russia and Germany), and the second most populous in the European Union (after Germany).

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France has been a centre of Western cultural development for centuries. Many French artists have been among the most renowned of their time; France is still recognised in the world for

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