Economy

Imports
$799 billion (2022). Petroleum Gas ($61.9B), Cars ($37.3B), Refined Petroleum ($34.3B), Crude Petroleum ($32.3B), and Packaged Medicaments ($17.6B), importing mostly from Germany ($120B), Belgium ($71.1B), Spain ($65.2B), Italy ($63.8B), and Netherlands ($59.9B).

In 2022, France was the world’s biggest importer of Electricity ($14.6B), Non-fillet Fresh Fish ($2.78B), Butter ($1.53B), Glands and Other Organs ($1.11B), and Nuclear Reactors ($616M).

Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of  age)
• 99.2% have an account with a financial institution
• 39.8% have a credit card

Ease of doing business
It is easy to conduct business (rated 76.8 out of 100), ranked 20th out of 34 OECD high income countries, and ranked 32nd out of 190 countries worldwide (2023, World Bank).

Global Innovation Index
Ranked 8th out of 39 European countries, 11th out of 132 worldwide.

The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.

Exports
$608 billion (2022). Planes, Helicopters, and/or Spacecraft ($26.6B), Packaged Medicaments ($26B), Cars ($21.3B), Petroleum Gas ($15.9B), and Motor vehicles; parts and accessories (8701 to 8705) ($13.9B), exporting mostly to Germany ($78.3B), Italy ($56.4B), United States ($50B), Belgium ($47.8B), and Spain ($46.4B).

In 2022, France was the world’s biggest exporter of Wine ($13.1B), Beauty Products ($10.8B), Perfumes ($7.24B), Bovine ($1.72B), and Water ($921M).

Main local online stores
Amazon, Cdiscount.com and Fnac. Other top retail sites include eBay, Carrefour, Rakuten, Google Shopping, Leroy Merlin, La Redoute and Apple sites.

Economic freedom
‘Moderately free’ (rated 62.5 out of 100) ranked 33rd out of 43 European countries and ranked 62nd out of 184 countries worldwide (2023, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal).

Media

Media language
Predominantly French, English, Arabic.

Information channels:
Television is France’s most popular medium. The flagship network, TF1, is privately-owned and public broadcaster France Televisions is funded from the TV licence fee and advertising revenue. Satellite and cable offer a proliferation of channels. Major pay-TV operator Canal+ is owned by media giant Vivendi. Digital terrestrial TV carries dozens of channels. France has a free press and more than 100 daily newspapers. Most of them are in private hands and are not linked to political parties. Public Radio France serves a domestic audience and French overseas territories. Commercial radios, particularly RTL and Europe 1, command large audiences. France is a force in international broadcasting. Radio France Internationale is a leading outlet and its Arabic-language Monte Carlo Doualiya service broadcasts across the Middle East. Global news channel France 24 TV broadcasts in French, English and Arabic. It has said it aims to present “a different point of view from the Anglo-Saxon world”.

The press

Le Monde – respected national daily, considered to be France’s newspaper of record.
Liberation – national daily, founded in 1973 by philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, centre-left leaning.
Le Figaro – national daily, centre-right leaning.
Ouest France – Rennes-based; France’s best-selling daily.
L’Express – news weekly.
Le Point – news weekly.

Television

France 2 – national, main public TV network.
France 3 – national, public.
France 5 – national, public, educational.
BFM TV – national, commercial news channel.
TF1 – national, commercial.
M6 – national, commercial.
La Chaine Info – rolling news channel owned by TF1.
France 24 – publicly-owned global news channel; services in French, English, Arabic.
TV5 Monde – international French-language TV, with programs from French, Belgian, Swiss and Canadian public broadcasters.
Canal Plus – national, subscription channel.

Radio

Radio France – operates national and regional outlets, including speech-based France Inter and all-news France Info.
Radio France Internationale (RFI) – international broadcaster, via shortwave and FM relays worldwide.
Europe 1 – major commercial station, news and entertainment.
RTL – major commercial station, speech and music.
NRJ – commercial, leading hit music network.

News agency

Agence France Presse (AFP) – Paris-based, founded in 1835.

Internet Data

Internet users
93.8% penetration, 60.80 million.

Share of web traffic by device
49.08% mobile phones, 48.02% computers (laptops and desktops), 2.84% tablet devices, others 0.06%.

Median speed of mobile Internet connection
79.60 Mbps

Median speed of fixed Internet connection
207.41 Mbps

Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 115.7%

Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 98.9%

Most popular web search engines
Google (90.93%), Bing (4.56%), Yahoo! (1.36%), YANDEX (0.96%), Ecosia (0.83%), other (1.37%).

Most used social media
Facebook (61.78%), Instagram (16.19%), Pinterest (9.8%), Twitter (6.14%), YouTube (3.04%), LinkedIn (1.46%), reddit (0.62%), other (0.96%).

Social statistics

Life expectancy
82 yrs (2022)

Corruption perception Index
France scored 72 out of 100, ranked 21st out of 180 countries worldwide.

Current health expenditure
12.31% of GDP

CO2 emissions
4.0 metric tons per capita

Current education expenditure
92% of total expenditure in public institutions.

World Happiness Index
France ranked 20 out of 146 countries, with a score of 6.687.

Glass Ceiling Index
70.4 out of 100, ranked 5th out of 29 countries.

The glass-ceiling index measures the environment for working women combining data on higher education, labor-force participation, pay, child-care costs, maternity and paternity rights, business-school applications, and representation in senior jobs.

Religion
The majority of the French consider themselves to be Catholic. However, only 14% of them regularly attend church. Many think that religion belongs in private life and prefer to practice it outside of religious institutions. Muslims are the second largest religious group in France and most of France’s Muslims are from North Africa. There are also Protestant and Jewish minorities. The state is secular and discrimination, particularly in the workplace, is against the law.

Gender
According to the law there is no difference between the sexes and they enjoy the same freedoms. Women may hold the same positions as men; however, they are still in charge of bringing up children, doing housework etc., although this is becoming more equally shared. All of these tasks impede women from spending as much time at work as men can; therefore, the evolution of their career takes much longer. There are fewer women in positions of responsibility, but those who do hold them are respected all the more.