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,

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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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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 Sevenleading

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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

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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 its rich cultural tradition.
The successive political

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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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