France Map with Regions

France has 18 regions: 13 in metropolitan France and 5 overseas. The map on this page shows the 13 metropolitan regions, which have been in force since 1 January 2016, when mergers cut the metropolitan count from 22. The 5 overseas regions are Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Réunion and Mayotte, and they are not drawn here. The metropolitan regions are Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Brittany (Bretagne), Centre-Val de Loire, Corsica (Corse), Grand Est, Hauts-de-France, Île-de-France, Normandy (Normandie), Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Occitanie, Pays de la Loire and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Eurostat counted 66,578,547 residents across these 13 regions on 1 January 2025.

Nouvelle-Aquitaine is the largest region of France by area. INSEE gives it 84,036 km² (32,446 sq mi). It runs along the Atlantic coast from Charente-Maritime south to the Pyrenees and the Spanish border, and it reaches inland to the Limousin uplands. The region was created on 1 January 2016 by merging Aquitaine, Limousin and Poitou-Charentes. It has 12 departments, and its regional capital is Bordeaux. Eurostat counted 6,210,839 residents on 1 January 2025, the third-highest population among the metropolitan regions. At the other end of the scale, Corsica is the smallest metropolitan region at 8,680 km² (3,351 sq mi).

Île-de-France has the most people of any French region. Eurostat counted 12,549,288 residents there on 1 January 2025, or 18.8% of the 66,578,547 people in the 13 metropolitan regions. The region surrounds Paris, the national capital, and has 8 departments, including the City of Paris itself. It covers 12,012 km² (4,638 sq mi) (INSEE), which makes it the second-smallest region after Corsica. Its population grew from 12,082,144 in 2015. Île-de-France also recorded the highest GDP per capita in France in 2024, at 69,500 EUR (Eurostat). Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, with Lyon as its capital, has the second-largest population at 8,270,088.

France cut its metropolitan regions from 22 to 13 under the law of 16 January 2015, and the new map took effect on 1 January 2016. The government said larger regions would be closer in size to regions elsewhere in Europe and would cost less to run. The reform created seven merged regions. Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine became Grand Est. Aquitaine, Limousin and Poitou-Charentes became Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées became Occitanie. Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy became Hauts-de-France. Auvergne joined Rhône-Alpes, Burgundy joined Franche-Comté, and Upper and Lower Normandy were reunited. Six regions kept their borders, including Brittany and Île-de-France.

The five overseas regions of France are Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Réunion and Mayotte, and they lie thousands of kilometers from the mainland. That is why this map covers the 13 metropolitan regions. Guadeloupe and Martinique are Caribbean islands. French Guiana is on the South American mainland and borders Brazil and Suriname. Réunion and Mayotte are in the Indian Ocean. Mayotte became an overseas department and region in 2011. Since 1 January 2016, French Guiana and Martinique have each been governed by a single territorial collectivity that combines the roles of region and department. Adding the 5 overseas regions to the 13 on this map gives France's official total of 18.

Corsica (Corse) is one of the 13 metropolitan regions of France, and it has a special status that no other metropolitan region has. Since 1 January 2018, the Collectivité de Corse has governed the island as a single territorial collectivity. It replaced the former Collectivité territoriale de Corse and the two departmental councils of Corse-du-Sud and Haute-Corse. It has its own assembly and an executive council, and it holds wider powers than the mainland regions. The regional capital is Ajaccio, and Bastia is the other main town. Corsica is the smallest region at 8,680 km² (3,351 sq mi) (INSEE). It is also the least populous, with 362,253 residents on 1 January 2025 (Eurostat).

France's regions and departments are two levels of local government, and the regions sit above the departments. The 13 metropolitan regions contain 96 departments. Overseas departments bring the national total to 101. Regions are responsible for economic development, regional rail services (TER), high schools (lycées) and EU structural funds. Departments are responsible for social welfare, middle schools (collèges) and departmental roads. Departments date from 1790, and elected regional councils date from the 1980s. A single region can hold many departments. Nouvelle-Aquitaine has 12, for example, and Île-de-France has 8. If you need the finer level, the departments have their own France departments map on Ultimaps.

Three metropolitan regions of France had fewer residents on 1 January 2025 than in 2015, according to Eurostat. Hauts-de-France fell from 6,009,976 to 5,974,447, a loss of 35,529. Bourgogne-Franche-Comté fell from 2,820,940 to 2,796,878. Grand Est fell from 5,559,051 to 5,550,155. All three are in the north and east of the country. The other ten regions grew over the same period. Corsica had the fastest growth, rising 10.7% from 327,283 to 362,253. Occitanie added 431,390 people, reaching 6,205,575 by 2025. You can map these changes by entering the values for each region in the editor on this page.

The editor on this page lets you build a map of France's regions without creating an account. To show the 2016 reform, for example, give the seven merged regions one color and the six unchanged regions another. To map statistics, enter a value for each of the 13 regions, and the editor turns them into a choropleth with a legend. Pins can mark cities such as Lyon or Marseille, and labels, borders, fonts and background colors are all adjustable. Exports on the free plan are standard PNG images with a small Ultimaps credit. High-resolution PNG, SVG and PDF files need a Pro plan.