The departments of France and maps

 The departments of France  

In the administrative divisions of France, the department (French: département, pronounced: [depaʁtəmɑ̃]) is one of the three levels of government below the national level ("territorial collectivities"), between the region and the commune. There are 96 departments inmetropolitan France and 5 overseas departments, which also are classified as regions. Departments are further subdivided into 342arrondissements, themselves divided into cantons; the latter two have no autonomy and are used for the organisation of public services and sometimes elections.

France's departments are administered by elected general councils (conseil général) and their presidents, whose main areas of responsibility include the management of a number of social and welfare allowances, of junior high school (collège) buildings and technical staff, of local roads and school and rural buses, and a contribution to municipal infrastructures. Local services of the State administration are traditionally organised at departmental level, where the prefect represents the government; however, regions have gained importance in this regard since the 2000s, with some department-level services merged into region-level services.

The departments were created in 1791 as a rational replacement of Ancien Régime provinces in view of strengthening national unity; almost all of them are therefore named after rivers, mountains or coasts rather than after historical or cultural territories, unlike regions, and some of them are commonly referred to by their two-digit postal code number, which was until recently used for all vehicle registration plates. They have inspired similar divisions in many of France's former colonies.

In 2014, President François Hollande proposed to abolish general councils by 2020, which would maintain the departments as administrative divisions, but transfer their powers to other levels of governance.

(France-in-Europe, excluding overseas territories).
Continental France is divided into 94 administrative departments, numbered 1 to 95, excepting 20. There is no department 20. The former department 20 is now departments 2a and 2b, which are the island of Corsica.


The department is the key territorial unit of France; it corresponds to a countyin the UK,  a canton in Switzerland or a province in Spain.

List of French departments:

Departments are the intermediate level of territorial administration in France, between regions  (map) and communes.

(01) Ain (02) Aisne (03) Allier (04) Alpes-de-Haute- Provence (05) Hautes-Alpes (06) Alpes-Maritimes (07) Ardèche (08) Ardennes (09) Ariège (10) Aube (11) Aude (12) Aveyron (13) Bouches-du-Rhône (14) Calvados (15) Cantal (16) Charente (17) Charente-Maritime (18) Cher (19) Corrèze (21) Côte-d'Or (22) Côtes-d'Armor (23) Creuse (24) Dordogne (25) Doubs (26) Drôme (27) Eure (28) Eure-et-Loir (29) Finistère (2A) Corse-du-Sud (2B) Haute-Corse (30) Gard (31) Haute-Garonne

(32) Gers (33) Gironde (34) Hérault (35) Ille-et-Vilaine (36) Indre (37) Indre-et-Loire (38) Isère (39) Jura (40) Landes (41) Loir-et-Cher (42) Loire (43) Haute-Loire (44) Loire-Atlantique (45) Loiret (46) Lot (47) Lot-et-Garonne (48) Lozère (49) Maine-et-Loire (50) Manche (51) Marne (52) Haute-Marne (53) Mayenne (54) Meurthe-et-Moselle (55) Meuse (56) Morbihan (57) Moselle (58) Nièvre (59) Nord (60) Oise (61) Orne (62) Pas-de-Calais (63) Puy-de-Dôme

(64) Pyrénées-Atlantiques (65) Hautes-Pyrénées (66) Pyrénées-Orientales (67) Bas-Rhin (68) Haut-Rhin (69) Rhône (70) Haute-Saône (71) Saône-et-Loire (72) Sarthe (73) Savoie (74) Haute-Savoie (75) Paris (76) Seine-Maritime (77) Seine-et-Marne (78) Yvelines (79) Deux-Sèvres (80) Somme (81) Tarn (82) Tarn-et-Garonne (83) Var (84) Vaucluse (85) Vendée (86) Vienne (87) Haute-Vienne (88) Vosges (89) Yonne (90) Territoire de Belfort (91) Essonne (92) Hauts-de-Seine (93) Seine-Saint-Denis (94) Val-de-Marne (95) Val-d'Oise