Administrative Divisions of France - Metropolitan France

Metropolitan France

As of January 1, 2008, metropolitan France is divided into the following:

• 22 regions (including Corsica, although strictly speaking Corsica is designated as a "territorial collectivity", not a region, but it is most often called a region in common speech and grouped with the other regions)
• the regions are subdivided into 96 departments
• the departments are in turn divided into 342 arrondissements
• the arrondissements are then divided into 3,883 cantons
• the cantons are subdivided into 36,569 communes (although some of the larger communes actually are composed of several cantons)
  • 3 communes (Paris, Marseille, and Lyon) are further divided into 45 municipal arrondissements
  • there also exist 730 associated communes (as of January 2006), formerly independent communes which were merged with larger communes but have retained some limited degree of autonomy (e.g. the commune of Lomme which was absorbed by Lille in 2000 and transformed into an "associated commune" inside the commune of Lille)

Furthermore, as of January 1, 2009, there exist 2,585 intercommunal structures grouping 34,077 communes (93.2% of all the communes of metropolitan France), with 87.4% of the population of metropolitan France living in them. These intercommunal structures are:

• 16 Urban communities (communautés urbaines, or CU)
• 167 Agglomeration communities (communautés d'agglomération, or CA)
• 2,397 Commune communities (communautés de communes, or CC)
• 5 Syndicates of New Agglomeration (syndicats d'agglomération nouvelle, or SAN), a category being phased out