Editing Departments of France (section)

=== Government and administration ===
[[File:Administration territoriale française.svg|thumb|left|upright=1.3|Administrative divisions of France]]

The departmental seat of government is known as the [[prefectures in France|prefecture]] ({{lang|fr|préfecture}}) or {{lang|fr|chef-lieu de département}} and is generally a town of some importance roughly at the geographical centre of the department. This was determined according to the time taken to travel on horseback from the periphery of the department. The goal was for the prefecture to be accessible on horseback from any town in the department within 24 hours. The prefecture is not necessarily the largest city in the department: for instance, in [[Saône-et-Loire]] department the capital is [[Mâcon]], but the largest city is [[Chalon-sur-Saône]]. Departments may be divided into {{lang|fr|[[arrondissements of France|arrondissements]]}}. The capital of an arrondissement is called a [[subprefectures in France|subprefecture]] ({{lang|fr|sous-préfecture}}) or {{lang|fr|chef-lieu d'arrondissement}}.

Each department is administered by a [[departmental council (France)|departmental council]] ({{lang|fr|conseil départemental}}), an assembly elected for six years by [[universal suffrage]], with the [[List of presidents of departmental councils (France)|President of the Departmental Council]] as executive of the department. Before 1982, the chief executive of the department was the [[prefect (France)|prefect]] ({{lang|fr|préfet}}), who represents the [[Government of France]] in each department and is appointed by the [[President of the French Republic]]. The prefect is assisted by one or more sub-prefects ({{lang|fr|sous-préfet}}) based in the subprefectures of the department. Since 1982, the prefect retains only the powers that are not delegated to the department councils. In practice, their role has been largely limited to preventing local policy from conflicting with national policy.

The departments are further divided into [[communes of France|communes]], governed by [[municipality|municipal councils]]. As of 2013, there were 36,681 communes in France. In the [[overseas departments and territories of France|overseas territories]], some communes play a role at departmental level. [[Paris]], the country's capital city, is a commune as well as a department.

[[File:Carte démographique de la France.svg|thumb|Population density in the departments (2007). The broken lines mark the approximate boundaries of the [[empty diagonal]]. The solid line is the Le Havre-Marseille line, to the east of which lives 60% of the French population.]]
In continental France ([[metropolitan France]], excluding [[Corsica]]), the [[median]] land area of a department is {{convert|5965|km2|abbr=on}}, which is two-and-a-half times the median land area of the [[ceremonial counties of England]] and the [[preserved counties of Wales]] and slightly more than three-and-half times the median land area of a [[county (United States)|county of the United States]]. At the 2001 census, the median population of a department in continental France was 511,000 inhabitants, which is 21 times the median population of a United States county, but less than two-thirds of the median population of a ceremonial county of England and Wales. Most of the departments have an area of between 4,000 and 8,000&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> (1500 to 3000 sq. mi.), and a population between 320,000 and 1 million. The largest in area is [[Gironde]] ({{convert|10,000|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}}), while the smallest is the city of Paris ({{convert|105|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}}). The most populous is [[Nord (French department)|Nord]] (2,550,000) and the least populous is [[Lozère]] (74,000).