France is a sovereign state comprising territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. France spans 643,801 square kilometres (248,573 sq mi) and has a total population of 66.3 million. It is a unitary semi-presidential republic with the capital in Paris.

French citizens enjoy a high standard of living health care civil liberties where it serves as one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. It is also a member of the Group of 7.

As a member of the Group of 7  leading industrialised countries, France ranks as the world's seventh largest and the EU's second largest economy by purchasing power parity. It joined 11 other EU members to launch the euro in 1999, with euro coins and banknotes completely replacing the French franc (?) in 2002.

According to the World Trade Organization (WTO), in 2009 France was the world's sixth largest exporter and the fourth largest importer of manufactured goods. In 2008, France was the third largest recipient of foreign direct investment among OECD countries at $118 billion. In the same year, France ranked the second largest outward direct investor in the OECD.

Financial services, banking and the insurance sector are an important part of the economy. In 2000, the stock exchanges of Paris, Amsterdam and Bruxelles merged into Euronext. In 2007, Euronext merged with the New York stock exchange to form NYSE Euronext, the world's largest stock exchange. Euronext Paris, the French branch of the NYSE Euronext group is Europe's 2nd largest stock exchange market, behind the London Stock Exchange.  AXA is the world's largest insurance company. The leading French banks are BNP Paribas and the Crédit Agricole, ranking as the world's first and sixth largest banks in 2010 (by assets), while the Société Générale group was ranked the world's eighth largest in 2009.