Common Frenchwoman

See also: Common

In France, the common is a administrative division, the smallest district of the Territoire French. A commune generally corresponds to the territory of a Ville or a Village. Its surface and especially its population can vary considerably (the most populated, Paris, has more than two million inhabitants, the least populated zeros (see low)).

At March 1st, 2007, there existed: 36782 communes in France (including 214 in overseas) which covered the entirety of the French territory (except for Wallis-and-Futuna and of some territories without permanent population), which represents approximately half of the full number of Commune S in the European Union.

Role and administration

In spite of the disparities of population and surface between the common Frenchwomen, all have the same administrative structure and very the legal Compétence S (except for Paris, Marseilles and Lyon controls in particular by the Loi PLM). The communes of the the Alsace-Moselle have the legal specificities inherited the period 1871 - 1919, at the time which the Alsace and the the Moselle were German. The communes of the departments franciliens also have particular rules, in particular with regard to the administrative Police.

A commune is managed by a Municipal council, whose members are elected with the Vote for all (direct suffrage) for six years. The municipal council elects in his center the Maire, which is charged - inter alia things - to apply the Council Decisions, and his assistants, who can receive certain delegations.

The number of city council men is determined by the population of the commune, the minimum being of 9. The meetings of the council are public, but only its members can express themselves there.

A commune is a Territorial collectivity, a Moral person of public law and has a budget made up essentially of the transfers of the State (total Dotation of operation, in particular) and local direct taxes: real estate taxes (bearing on the properties), of professional dwelling and (discharged by the craftsmen, the tradesmen and the companies); it deals with the local government (management of water, the Permis to build, etc). As a representative of the State in the commune, the mayor with the load of the acts of civil statue (Birth, Marriage, Divorce, Death…) and also has policing powers (except with Paris where this competence is ensured by the Prefect of police, under the authority of the Gouvernement.

The three most populated communes (Paris, Marseilles and Lyon) are still divided into municipal districts (which have nothing to do with the departmental districts, another French administrative division), but their competences are reduced (they do not have a clean Budget, for example).

Competences of the communes are primarily controls by the parts legislative and regulatory of the general Code of the territorial collectivities (CGCT) .

There is in France approximately: 500000 city council men (mayors included).

History

See also: Common (the Middle Ages), History of the administrative law français#La installation of the local government agencies and territorial, great dates of the local government agencies

The communes were created at the time of the French revolution, the December 14th 1789, in order to standardize the French territory, divided until there into Paroisse S, cities or villages (at the same time as the creation of the departments, of the districts [[district French|district] S date from 1800] and the canton S). The communes take again the territory and the population of the parishes which they assist (temporal role).

The term of “commune”, within the meaning of the territorial Administration contemporary, is imposed by the decree of the national Convention of the 10 Brumaire An II (October 31st 1793): “National Convention, on the proposal of a member, issues that all the denominations of city, borough or village are removed and that of commune their is substituted”. The members of the municipal council were elected by the vote Censitaire. The mayor was named either by the central capacity for the most populated communes, or by the prefect for the others.

The municipal law of the April 5th 1884 institutes that the municipal council is elected by the direct suffrage. The council sits at the Mairie of the commune and is chaired by the mayor who is appointed among his.

Statistics

Many communes

At March 1st, 2007, France counted: 36782 communes. This number is definitely higher than in the majority of the European countries : the Germany account approximately: 13000 communes, the Spain and the Italy approximately: 8000; the the United Kingdom does not have similar territorial division.

Contrary to other countries of which certain parts can be directly managed by a division of higher order (like the the United States), the totality of the territory of the French Republic is cut out in communes except for:

The following list recapitulates the number of communes by department or community of overseas. In a general way, the departments located at the north and the east of France count more communes than those located at the south and the west. The departments and communities of overseas are also largely divided than those of Metropolitan France. Lastly, Paris and the departments of its small crown, because of their small size, count some much less.

Evolution

The full number of communes in France is not fixed and continuous to evolve/move, either with the rise by fractionation of existing communes, or with the fall by fusion of communes.

Since January 1st, 2006:

Change of department

The commune of Han-in front of-Pierrepont until in 1997 was attached to the department of the Meuse, it is part from now on of that of Meurthe-et-Moselle.

Population

Data based on the census of 1999, population without double accounts.

The median population of the communes of Metropolitan France is of 380 inhabitants (as comparison, the median population of the common Belgians is of: 11265 inhabitants, of the Italian communes of: 2343 inhabitants and of Spain of: 5505 inhabitants). The population Moyenne is of: 1542 inhabitants.

In Metropolitan France: 31927 communes have less: 2000 inhabitants (gathering: 25.3% of the total population): 3764 between: 2000 and: 10000 inhabitants (: 25.5%), 762 between: 10000 and: 50000 inhabitants (: 25.3%), 102 between: 50000 and: 200000 inhabitants (: 14.4%), 10 more: 200000 inhabitants (: 8.9%). In addition, more: 10000 communes have less than 200 inhabitants.

The commune of the most populated Metropolitan France is Paris (: 2125246 inhabitants). Densément populated with the census of 1999 was Pre-Saint-Gervais (Seine-Saint-Denis: 23396 hab/km ²). According to estimates INSEE of population at July 1st, 2004, Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine) exceeds even this figure, with a density of: 25934 hab/km ² (the figures of Pre-Saint-Gervais in 2004 are not available). The urban district (i.e. a commune comprising a zone of more than: 2000 inhabitants where no dwelling is separated from nearest of more than 200 meters) the least densément populated is Arles (Rhone delta, 67 hab/km ²).

Six communes completely devastated after the Bataille of Verdun in 1916 were never rebuilt and do not have any inhabitant: Beaumont-in-Verdunois, Bezonvaux, Cumières-the-Death-Man, Fleury-in front of-Douaumont, Haumont-près-Samogneux and Louvemont-Coast-of-Pepper. Qualified communes “died for France”, each one is managed by a municipal council of three members named by the prefect of the Meuse ( to see French Villages destroyed during the First World War ).

Put besides these six communes, Rochefourchat (Drome) only one account living, Leménil-Mitry (Meurthe-et-Moselle) and Rouvroy-Ripont (the Marne) two inhabitants.

The following table indicates the common Frenchwomen of more than: 200000 inhabitants, classified by decreasing population:

Source: Insee

Surface

  • the communal territories are precisely delimited by the Cadastre.

  • the intermediate size of a commune of Metropolitan France is of 14,88 km ². The median size of the communes of Metropolitan France is only of: 10.73 km ², because of the high number of communes of low surface (there still, France have the appearance of an exception in Europe: in Germany, the median size of the communes of the majority of Länder is higher than 15 km ², in Italy it is of 22 km ², in Spain 35 km ², Belgium 40 km ²). More: 15000 communes extend on 2,5 to 10 km ².
  • In the overseas departments, the communes are generally larger than in Metropolitan France and can gather relatively distant villages.
  • the widest commune is Maripasoula (Guyana, 3.710 inhabitants) with: 18360 km ². On the metropolitan territory, Arles (: 758.93 km ²) and the Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer (: 374.45 km ²), both in the Rhone delta, are the two widest communes.
  • the smallest commune is Castelmoron-with Albret (the Gironde, 62 inhabitants) with: 0.0376 km ². Plessix-Balisson (: 0.08 km ², Coast-with Armor, 83 inhabitants, entirely wedged in Ploubalay) and Vaudherland (: 0.09 km ², Val-d'Oise, 88 inhabitants) are the two other smallest communes.

Totality of the territory

50 the most extended communes of France (included overseas):

Données: national geographical Institute

Metropolitan France

30 the most extended communes of Metropolitan France:

The data come from the Géoportail:

For memory, Paris has a surface of: 105.40 km ².

10 the least extended communes of Metropolitan France:

Geographical extremes

  • the common Frenchwomen having the maximum altitude highest are Chamonix-Mount-White (Haute-Savoie: 9830 inhabitants) and Saint-Gervais-the-Baths (Haute-Savoie: 5276 inhabitants), who culminate at the top of the Mont Blanc with: 4807 m (while taking into account, of course, the French position on the Franco-Italian Border in the area). The commune whose inhabited areas are highest is Saint-Véran (Hautes-Alpes, 267 inhabitants), from which the territory extends between: 1756 and: 3175 m of altitude; the village is staged of: 1950 m with: 2040 Mr.

  • the common lowest Frenchwoman is Moëres (Northern, 670 inhabitants), of which part of the territory is located below the Sea level, to -4 Mr.
  • the common Frenchwoman most distant from Paris is the Île of the Pines (: 1671 inhabitants) in New Caledonia, with: 16841 km of the capital. On the continental metropolitan territory, it is about Coustouges (134 inhabitants) and Lamanère (44 inhabitants), both in the the Eastern Pyrenees and distant of Paris of 721 km. If one includes the Corsica , it is about Bonifacio, located at 986 km
  • the commune more in north east Bray-Dunes, Northern.
  • the communes more in the west are:
  • the communes more in the east is:
  • the communes more in the south is:
(the Ad3elie coast not being officially a French territory, the South pole cannot be taken into account.

Name

Common islanders

See also: List of the common French islanders

Among the communes entirely located on one or more islands located at sea, one can quote:

There exist also communes located on river islands, such as for example the Island-Saint-Denis or Béhuard.

Intercommunality

See also: Intercommunalité

Some Compétence S can be transferred to inter-commune structures.

Vast majority of common the Frenchwoman (90%) account less than 2.000 inhabitants. This is why it was planned to reduce the number of communes by a mechanism of fusion. Founded at the time of the law of July 16th, 1971, said “law Marcellin” , this mechanism can give rise to a common news and single gathering the amalgamated communes or it confers on the amalgamated communes the statutes of, respectively, chief town or Commune partner . In the dynamics of this law, it had been considered approximately 3.500 fusions gathering 10.000 communes. In 1982, one counted in fact only 810 fusions gathering 1952 communes.

The small communes indeed prefer to preserve their prerogatives free to entrust them to public corporations of inter-commune co-operation , to companies of mixed economy or to associations.

The development of the intercommunality was started again by the law of July 12th, 1999, called “ law Chevènement ”. From now on, the principal inter-commune structures are the urban communities, communities of agglomeration and communities of communes, financed by a clean taxation.

Inhabitants

See also: Gentilés de France

The Gentilé is the name given to the inhabitants of a commune.

See too

Internal bonds

  • Project: Communes of France

External bonds

  • Research Communes of France with GenCom
  • List of the {{formatnum: 36685}} common of France (to the 1 {{er}} January 2006)
  • Local government agencies Page of the site of the Ministry for finances and industry (MINEFI)
  • legislative Shutter of competences of the communes
  • regulatory Shutter of competences of the communes
  • Cities and communes of France with lescommunes.com
  • Directory of the Town halls and Institutions of France
  • Directory Cities and Villages of France
  • Distribution of the communes according to their population by area to the census of the population 1999 (INSEE)
  • Limiting administrative of the communes of Ile-de-France on Google Earth
  • Directory of the cities and communes of France

Sources

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