Regions of France

France is divided into eighteen administrative regions, of which thirteen are located in metropolitan France, while the other five are overseas regions.
All of the thirteen metropolitan administrative regions are further subdivided into two to thirteen administrative departments, with the prefect of each region's administrative centre's department also acting as the regional prefect. The overseas regions administratively consist of only one department each and hence also have the status of overseas departments.
Most administrative regions also have the status of regional territorial collectivities, which comes with a local government, with departmental and communal collectivities below the regional level. The exceptions are Corsica, French Guiana, Mayotte and Martinique, where region and department functions are managed by single local governments having consolidated jurisdiction and which are known as single territorial collectivities.

History

1982–2015

The term région was officially created by the Law of Decentralisation, which also gave regions their legal status. The first direct elections for regional representatives took place on 16 March 1986.
Between 1982 and 2015, there were 22 regions in Metropolitan France. Before 2011, there were four overseas regions ; in 2011 Mayotte became the fifth.

Region	French name	Other local name	INSEE No.	Capital	Derivation or etymology
Alsace	Alsace	Alsatian: Elsàss	42	Strasbourg	Formerly a coalition of free cities in Holy Roman Empire, attached to Kingdom of France in 1648; annexed by Germany from Franco-Prussian War to the end of World War I and briefly during World War II
Aquitaine	Aquitaine	Saintongeais : Aguiéne	72	Bordeaux	Guyenne and Gascony
Auvergne	Auvergne		83	Clermont-Ferrand	Former province of Auvergne
Brittany	Bretagne	Gallo: Bertaèyn	53	Rennes	Duchy of Brittany
Burgundy	Bourgogne	Burgundian: Bregogne''Borgoégne	26	Dijon	Duchy of Burgundy
Centre-Val de Loire	Centre-Val de Loire		24	Orléans	Located in north-central France; straddles the middle of the Loire Valley
Champagne-Ardenne	Champagne-Ardenne		21	Châlons-en- Champagne	Former province of Champagne
Corsica	Corse		94	Ajaccio
Franche-Comté	Franche-Comté	Franc-Comtois: Fràntche-Comté	43	Besançon	Free County of Burgundy
Île-de-France	Île-de-France		11	Paris	Province of Île-de-France and parts of the former province of Champagne
Languedoc-Roussillon	Languedoc-Roussillon		91	Montpellier	Former provinces of Languedoc and Roussillon
Limousin	Limousin		74	Limoges	Former province of Limousin and parts of Marche, Berry, Auvergne, Poitou and Angoumois
Lorraine	Lorraine	Lorraine Franconian: Lottringe	41	Metz	Named for Charlemagne's son Lothair I, the kingdom of Lotharingia is etymologically the source for the name Lorraine,, Lottringe
Lower Normandy	Basse-Normandie	Norman: Basse-Normaundie	25	Caen	Western half of former province of Normandy
Midi-Pyrénées	Midi-Pyrénées		73	Toulouse	None; created for Toulouse
Nord-Pas-de-Calais	Nord-Pas-de-Calais	Picard: Nord-Pas-Calés	31	Lille	Nord and Pas-de-Calais departments
Pays de la Loire	Pays de la Loire		52	Nantes	None; created for Nantes
Picardy	Picardie		22	Amiens	Former province of Picardy
Poitou-Charentes	Poitou-Charentes	Poitevin and Saintongeais : Poetou-Chérentes''	54	Poitiers	Former provinces of Angoumois, Aunis, Poitou and Saintonge
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur	Provençal: Provença-Aups-Còsta d'Azur	93	Marseille	Former historical province of Provence and County of Nice annexed by France in 1860.
Rhône-Alpes	Rhône-Alpes		82	Lyon	Created for Lyon from Dauphiné and Lyonnais provinces and Savoy
Upper Normandy	Haute-Normandie	Norman: Ĥâote-Normaundie	23	Rouen	Eastern half of former province of Normandy

Reform and mergers of regions

In 2014, the French parliament passed a law reducing the number of metropolitan regions from 22 to 13 effective 1 January 2016.
The law gave interim names for most of the new regions by combining the names of the former regions, e.g. the region composed of Aquitaine, Poitou-Charentes and Limousin was temporarily called Aquitaine-Limousin-Poitou-Charentes. However, the combined region of Upper and Lower Normandy was simply called "Normandy". Permanent names were proposed by the new regional councils by 1 July 2016 and new names confirmed by the Conseil d'État by 30 September 2016. The legislation defining the new regions also allowed the Centre region to officially change its name to "Centre-Val de Loire" with effect from January 2015. Two regions, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, opted to retain their interim names.
Given below is a table of former regions and which new region they became part of.

List of administrative regions

Role

Regions lack separate legislative authority and therefore cannot write their own statutory law. They levy their own taxes and, in return, receive a decreasing part of their budget from the central government, which gives them a portion of the taxes it levies. They also have considerable budgets managed by a regional council made up of representatives voted into office in regional elections.
A region's primary responsibility is to build and furnish high schools. In March 2004, the French central government unveiled a controversial plan to transfer regulation of certain categories of non-teaching school staff to the regional authorities. Critics of this plan contended that tax revenue was insufficient to pay for the resulting costs, and that such measures would increase regional inequalities.
In addition, regions have considerable discretionary power over infrastructural spending, e.g., education, public transit, universities and research, and assistance to business owners. This has meant that the heads of wealthy regions such as Île-de-France or Rhône-Alpes can be high-profile positions.
Proposals to give regions limited legislative autonomy have met with considerable resistance; others propose transferring certain powers from the departments to their respective regions, leaving the former with limited authority.

Regional control

Number of regions controlled by each coalition since 1986.

Overseas regions

Overseas region is a recent designation, given to the overseas departments that have similar powers to those of the regions of metropolitan France. As integral parts of the French Republic, they are represented in the National Assembly, Senate and Economic and Social Council, elect a Member of the European Parliament and use the euro as their currency.
Although these territories have had these political powers since 1982, when France's decentralisation policy dictated that they be given elected regional councils along with other regional powers, the designation overseas regions dates only to the 2003 constitutional change; indeed, the new wording of the constitution aims to give no precedence to either appellation overseas department or overseas region, although the second is still virtually unused by French media.
The following have overseas region status:

in the Indian Ocean :
* Mayotte
* Réunion
in the Americas:
* French Guiana in South America
* Guadeloupe in the Antilles
* Martinique in the Antilles
Explanatory notes