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See also main article: Foreign relations of France.
France's founding membership in the European Union largely defines France's current foreign policy. The French Republic is furthermore a member of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and of the Indian Ocean Commission (InOC), and an associate member of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS). France is also a leading member or the International Organization of Francophonie (OIF) which gathers 51 fully or partly French-speaking countries.
France hosts the headquarters of the OECD and UNESCO, as well as those of the International Bureau for Weights and Measures in charge of the international metric system, and interpol.
Main article: Demographics of France
The official language is French, with several regional languages (including Basque, Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Dutch ( Flemish), Alsatian, Occitan and Oïl languages), but the French government and school system discouraged the use of any of them until recently. The regional languages are now taught at some schools, though French remains the only official language in use by the government, local or national.
Starting with the 19th century, the historical evolution of the population in France has been extremely atypical in the Western World. Unlike the rest of Europe, France did not experience a strong population growth in the 19th century and first half of the 20th century. Conversely, it experienced a much stronger growth in the second half of the 20th century than the rest of Europe or indeed its own growth in the previous centuries.
It has been the third most populous country of Europe, behind Russia and Germany, since the late 1990s.
The principal cities by population include:
See also List of fifteen largest French metropolitan areas by population and List of towns in France.
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