Editing Departments of France (section)

=== Numbering ===

The departments are numbered: their two-digit numbers appear in [[postal code]]s, in [[Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques|INSEE]] codes (including "social security numbers") and on [[Vehicle registration plates of France|vehicle number plates]]. Initially the numbers corresponded to the alphabetical order of the names of the departments, but several changed their names and some have been divided, so the correspondence became less exact. Alphanumeric codes 2A and 2B were used for [[Corsica]] while it was split but it has since reverted to 20. The two-digit code "98" is used by [[Monaco]]. Together with the [[ISO 3166-1 alpha-2]] country code FR, the numbers form the [[ISO 3166-2]] country subdivision codes for the metropolitan departments. The overseas departments have three digits.{{citation needed|date = February 2023}}