The term "metropolitan France" dates from the country's colonial period, when France was referred to as la Métropole, as distinguished from its colonies and protectorates, known as les colonies or l'Empire. Similar terms existed to describe other European colonial powers. This application of the words "metropolis" and "metropolitan" came from Ancient Greek "metropolis", which was the name for a city-state that created colonies across the Mediterranean. By extension "metropolis" and "metropolitan" came to mean "motherland", a nation or country as opposed to its colonies overseas. Today, some people in Overseas France object to the use of the term la France métropolitaine due to its colonial history. They prefer to call it "the European territory of France", as the Treaties of the European Union do. Likewise, they oppose treating overseas France and metropolitan France as separate entities. For example, INSEE used to calculate its statistics for metropolitan France only, and to analyze separate statistics for the overseas departments and territories. People in the overseas departments have opposed this separate treatment, arguing that the then four overseas departments were fully part of France. As a result, since the end of the 1990s INSEE has included the four overseas departments in its figures for France. The fifth overseas department, Mayotte, has been included in the figures for France since the mid-2010s too. INSEE refers to metropolitan France and the five overseas departments as la France entière. "The whole of France" includes the five overseas departments, but does not include the other overseas collectivities and territories that have more autonomy than the departments. Other branches of the French administration may have different definitions of what la France entière is. For example, in contrast to INSEE, when the Ministry of the Interior releases election results, they use the term la France entière to refer to the entire French Republic, including all of overseas France, and not just the five overseas departments. Note that since INSEE now calculates statistics for la France entière, this practice has spread to international institutions. For instance, the French GDP published by the World Bank includes metropolitan France and the five overseas departments. The World Bank refers to this total as "France"; it does not use the phrase "the whole of France", as INSEE does.
Statistics
Metropolitan France covers a land area of, while Overseas France covers a land area of, for a total of in the French Republic. Thus, metropolitan France accounts for 82.0% of the French Republic's land territory. At sea, the exclusive economic zone of metropolitan France covers, while the EEZ of Overseas France covers, for a total of in the French Republic. Thus, metropolitan France accounts for 3.3% of the French Republic's EEZ. According to INSEE, 65,018,000 people lived in metropolitan France as of January 2018, while 2,790,000 lived in overseas France, for a total of 67,808,000 inhabitants in the French Republic. Thus, metropolitan France accounts for 95.9% of the French Republic's population. In the second round of the 2017 French presidential election, 35,467,327 French people cast a ballot. 33,883,463 of these cast their ballots in metropolitan France, 1,003,910 cast their ballots in overseas France, and 579,954 cast their ballots in foreign countries. The French National Assembly is made up of 577 deputies, 539 of whom are elected in metropolitan France, 27 in overseas France, and 11 by French citizens living in foreign countries.
Mainland France
Mainland France, or just "the mainland", does not include the French islands in the Atlantic Ocean, English Channel or Mediterranean Sea, the largest of which is Corsica. In Corsica, people from the mainland part of metropolitan France are referred to as les continentaux. A casual synonym for the mainland part of metropolitan France is l'Hexagone, for its approximate shape, and the adjective hexagonal may be a casual synonym of French.
