Commune in France

The commune (in French: commune, word appeared in the 12th century, from Medieval Latin communia, gathering of people sharing a common life, from Latin communis, things held in common) is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to US incorporated municipalities/cities. French communes have no equivalent in the United Kingdom.

General characteristics

Total number of communes

As of 1 January 2004, there were 36,782 communes in the French Republic, 36,568 of them in metropolitan France and 214 of them overseas. This is a staggering number, much higher than in any other European country. This peculiarity is explained in detail in the history section below; briefly, French communes still largely reflect the division of villages at the time of the French Revolution more than two centuries ago.

Related Topics:
1 January - 2004 - Metropolitan France - French Revolution

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It should also be noted that, in contrast to the United States, the whole of the territory of the French Republic, outside of some small overseas possessions, is divided into communes. Within the territory of the French Republic there is no such thing as unincorporated areas directly governed by a county or a higher authority. Any piece of land in the French Republic is part of a commune, both in metropolitan France and in its overseas extensions, with only the exceptions of:

Related Topics:
United States - Metropolitan France

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• COM (collectivité d'outre-mer, i.e. overseas collectivity) of Wallis and Futuna (14,944 inhabitants), which still is divided according to the three traditional chiefdoms (the only permanently inhabited territory in the French Republic which is not divided in communes).
• TOM (territoire d'outre-mer, i.e. overseas territory) of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (no permanent population, about 170 resident scientists).
• Îles Éparses ("Scattered Islands"), a grouping of five islands in the Indian Ocean (no permanent population, 55 soldiers and meteorologists).
• Clipperton Island in the Pacific Ocean (uninhabited).

Surface area of a typical commune

In metropolitan France, the average area of a commune in 2004 is 14.88 km² (5.75 sq. miles, or 3,676 acres). The median area of metropolitan France's communes (as of 1999 census) is even smaller, at 10.73 km² (4.14 sq. miles, or 2,651 acres). The median area is a better measure of the area of a typical French commune.

Related Topics:
14.88 km² - Median

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This median area is smaller than in most of the European countries, such as Italy where the median area of communes is 22 km² (8.5 sq. miles), Belgium where it is 40 km² (15.5 sq. miles), Spain where it is 35 km² (13.5 sq. miles), or Germany where the majority of Länder have communes with a median area above 15 km² (5.8 sq. miles).

Related Topics:
Italy - Belgium - Spain - Germany - Länder

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This very small size in the French case is due to the extremely high number of communes, mentioned above, in a medium-sized territory such as France. In 2000, Switzerland and the Länder of Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig-Holstein, and Thuringia in Germany were the only places in Europe where the communes had a smaller median area than in France.

Related Topics:
Switzerland - Länder - Rhineland-Palatinate - Schleswig-Holstein - Thuringia - Germany - France

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The communes of French overseas départements such as Réunion and Guyane are large by French standards, larger than communes of metropolitan France. They usually group into the same commune several villages or towns, often with sizeable distances between them. On Réunion, demographic expansion and the expansion of inhabited zones have resulted in some of the old communes (which, roughly speaking, extended from the sea to the mountains as a crown around the volcanoes of the island) being split.

Related Topics:
Overseas ''départements'' - Réunion - Guyane

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Population of a typical commune

The median population of metropolitan France's communes as of the 1999 census was 380 inhabitants. Again this is a very small number, and here France stands absolutely apart in Europe, with the lowest communes' median population of all the European countries (communes in Switzerland or Rhineland-Palatinate may have a smaller surface area, as mentioned above, but they are more populated). This small median population of French communes can be compared with Italy where the median population of communes in 2001 was 2,343 inhabitants, Belgium where it was 11,265 inhabitants, or even Spain where it was 564 inhabitants.

Related Topics:
Median - Switzerland - Rhineland-Palatinate - Italy - Belgium - Spain

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The median population given here should not hide the fact that differences in size are extreme among French communes. As mentioned in the introduction, a commune can be a city of 2,000,000 inhabitants such as Paris, a town of 10,000 inhabitants, or just a village of 10 inhabitants. The median population tells us is that the vast majority of French communes have only a few hundred inhabitants, but a small number of communes are highly populated.

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In metropolitan France, there are 20,982 communes with less than 500 inhabitants, which is 57.4% of the total of communes. In these 20,982 communes there live only 4,638,000 inhabitants, or 7.7% of the total population of metropolitan France. In other words, only 7.7% of the French population live in 57.4% of the communes, while 92.3% of the population live in just 42.6% of the French communes.

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Status of the communes

Despite enormous differences in population, each of the communes of the French Republic possesses a mayor (maire) and a municipal council (conseil municipal) which manage the commune from the mairie (city hall), with exactly the same powers no matter the size of the commune (with the city of Paris as the only exception, where the city police are in the hands of the central state, not of the mayor of Paris). This uniformity of status is a clear legacy of the French Revolution, which wanted to do away with the local idiosyncrasies and tremendous differences of status that existed in the kingdom of France.

Related Topics:
Mairie - City hall

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The size of a commune still matters, however, in two domains: French law determines the size of the municipal council according to the population of the commune; and the size of the population determines which voting process is used for the election of the municipal council.

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Since the PML Law of 1982, three French communes also have a special status in that they are further divided into municipal arrondissements: these are Paris, Marseille, and Lyon. Municipal arrondissement is the only administrative unit below the commune in the French Republic, but it exists only in these three communes. These municipal arrondissements are not to be confused with the arrondissements that are subdivisions of French départements.

Related Topics:
Municipal arrondissements - Paris - Marseille - Lyon - Arrondissements - Départements

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French communes have legal "personality" since 1837: they are considered legal entities, and they have legal capacity. Municipal arrondissements have no legal personality, and no budget of their own.

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The rights and obligations of communes are governed by the Code général des collectivités territoriales (CGCT) which replaced the Code des communes (except for personnel matters) with the passage of the law of 21 February 1996 for legislation and decree number 2000-318 of 7 April 2000 for regulations.

Related Topics:
21 February - 1996 - 7 April - 2000

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• (http://www.droit.org/code/index-CGCTERRL.html) Legislation
• (http://www.droit.org/code/index-CGCTERRM.html) Decree