The French census uses the commune as the basis of its returns, and employs the following classifications in respect to communal population: (1) Total communal population. (2) Population comptée à part, which includes soldiers and sailors, inmates of prisons, asylums, schools, members of religious communities, and workmen temporarily engaged in public works. (3) Total municipal population, i.e. communal population minus the population comptée à part. (4) Population municipale agglomérée au chef-lieu de la commune, which embraces the urban population as opposed to the rural population. The following tables, showing the growth of the largest towns in France, are drawn up on the basis of the fourth classification, which is used throughout this work in the articles on French towns, except where otherwise stated.
In 1906 there were in France twelve towns with a population of over 100,000 inhabitants. Their growth or decrease from 1886 to 1906 is shown in the following table:
| 1886. | 1896. | 1906. | |
| Paris . . . . | 2,294,108 | 2,481,223 | 2,711,931 |
| Lyons . . . . | 344,124 | 398,867 | 430,186 |
| Marseilles . . | 249,938 | 332,515 | 421,116 |
| Bordeaux . . | 225,281 | 239,806 | 237,707 |
| Lille . . . | 143,135 | 160,723 | 196,624 |
| St Etienne . | 103,229 | 120,300 | 130,940 |
| Le Havre . . | 109,199 | 117,009 | 129,403 |
| Toulouse . . | 123,040 | 124,187 | 125,856 |
| Roubaix . . | 89,781 | 113,899 | 119,955 |
| Nantes . . . | 110,638 | 107,137 | 118,244 |
| Rouen . . . | 100,043 | 106,825 | 111,402 |
| Reims . . . | 91,130 | 99,001 | 102,800 |
In the same years the following eighteen towns, now numbering from 50,000 to 100,000 inhabitants, each had:
| 1886. | 1896. | 1906. | |
| Nice . . . | 61,464 | 69,140 | 99,556 |
| Nancy . . . | 69,463 | 83,668 | 98,302 |
| Toulon . . . | 53,941 | 70,843 | 87,997 |
| Amiens . . | 68,177 | 74,808 | 78,407 |
| Limoges . . | 56,699 | 64,718 | 75,906 |
| Angers . . . | 65,152 | 69,484 | 73,585 |
| Brest . . . | 59,352 | 64,144 | 71,163 |
| Nîmes . . . | 62,198 | 66,905 | 70,708 |
| Montpellier . | 45,930 | 62,717 | 65,983 |
| Dijon . . . | 50,684 | 58,355 | 65,516 |
| Tourcoing . . | 41,183 | 55,705 | 62,694 |
| Rennes . . . | 52,614 | 57,249 | 62,024 |
| Tours . . . | 51,467 | 56,706 | 61,507 |
| Calais . . . | 52,839 | 50,818 | 59,623 |
| Grenoble . . | 43,260 | 50,084 | 58,641 |
| Orléans . . | 51,208 | 56,915 | 57,544 |
| Le Mans . . | 46,991 | 49,665 | 54,907 |
| Troyes . . . | 44,864 | 50,676 | 51,228 |
Of the population in 1901, 18,916,889 were males and 19,533,899 females, an excess of females over males of 617,010, i.e. 1.6% or about 508 females to every 492 males. In 1881 the proportion was 501 females to every 499 males, since when the disparity has been slightly more marked at every census. Below is a list of the departments in which the number of women to every thousand men was (1) greatest and (2) least.
| (1) | (2) | ||
| Creuse . . . . | 1131 | Belfort. . . . . | 886 |
| Côtes-du-Nord . . | 1117 | Basses-Alpes . . . | 893 |
| Seine . . . . . | 1103 | Var. . . . . . | 894 |
| Calvados. . . . | 1100 | Meuse . . . . . | 905 |
| Cantal . . . | 1098 | Hautes-Alpes . . | 908 |
| Seine-Inférieure. . | 1084 | Meurthe-et-Moselle . | 918 |
| Basses-Pyrénées. . | 1080 | Haute-Savoie. . | 947 |
Departments from which the adult males emigrate regularly either to sea or to seek employment in towns tend to fall under the first head, those in which large bodies of troops are stationed under the second.
The annual number of emigrants from France is small. The Basques of Basses-Pyrénées go in considerable numbers to the Argentine Republic, the inhabitants of Basses Alpes to Mexico and the United States, and there are important French colonies in Algeria and Tunisia.
The following table shows the distribution of the active population of France according to their occupations in 1901.
| Occupation. | Males. | Females. | Total. |
| Forestry and agriculture . | 5,517,617 | 2,658,952 | 8,176,569 |
| Manufacturing industries | 3,695,213 | 2,124,642 | 5,819,855 |
| Trade . . . . .. | 1,132,621 | 689,999 | 1,822,620 |
| Domestic service . . . | 223,861 | 791,176 | 1,015,037 |
| Transport . . . . . | 617,849 | 212,794 | 830,643 |
| Public service . . . . | 1,157,835 | 139,734 | 1,297,569 |
| Liberal professions . . | 226,561 | 173,278 | 399,839 |
| Mining, quarries . . . | 261,320 | 5,031 | 266,351 |
| Fishing . . . . . . | 63,372 | 4,400 | 67,772 |
| Unclassed . . . . . | 14,316 | 4,504 | 18,820 |
| Grand Total . . | 12,910,565 | 6,804,510 | 19,715,075 |
Religion.
Great alterations were made with regard to religious matters in France by a law of December 1905, supplemented by a law of January 1907 (see below, Law and Institutions). Before that time three religions (cultes) were recognized and supported by the state—the Roman Catholic, the Protestant (subdivided into the Reformed and Lutheran) and the Hebrew. In Algeria the Mahommedan religion received similar recognition. By the law of 1905 all the churches ceased to be recognized or supported by the state and became entirely separated therefrom, while the adherents of all creeds were permitted to form associations for public worship (associations cultuelles), upon which the expenses of maintenance were from that time to devolve. The state, the departments, and the communes were thus relieved from the payment of salaries and grants to religious bodies, an item of expenditure which amounted in the last year of the old system to £1,101,000 paid by the state and £302,200 contributed by the departments and communes. Before these alterations the relations between the state and the Roman Catholic communion, by far the largest and most important in France, were chiefly regulated by the provisions of the Concordat of 1801, concluded between the first consul, Bonaparte, and Pope Pius VII. and by other measures passed in 1802.
France is divided into provinces and dioceses as follows:
| Archbishoprics. | Bishoprics. |
| Paris . . . | Chartres, Meaux, Orléans, Blois, Versailles. |
| Aix . . . | Marseilles, Fréjus, Digne, Gap, Nice, Ajaccio. |
| Albi . . . | Rodez, Cahors, Mende, Perpignan. |
| Auch . . . | Aire, Tarbes, Bayonne. |
| Avignon . . | Nîmes, Valence, Viviers, Montpellier. |
| Besançon. . | Verdun, Bellay, St Dié, Nancy. |
| Bordeaux . | Agen, Angoulême, Poitiers, Périgueux, La Rochelle, Luçon. |
| Bourges . . | Clermont, Limoges, Le Puy, Tulle, St Flour. |
| Cambrai . . | Arras. |
| Chambéry . | Annecy, Tarentaise, St Jean-de-Maurienne. |
| Lyons . . . | Autun, Langres, Dijon, St Claude, Grenoble. |
| Reims . . . | Soissons, Châlons-sur-Marne, Beauvais, Amiens. |
| Rennes . . | Quimper, Vannes, St Brieuc. |
| Rouen . . . | Bayeux, Evreux, Sées, Coutances. |
| Sens . . . | Troyes, Nevers, Moulins. |
| Toulouse . . | Montauban, Pamiers, Carcassonne. |
| Tours . . . | Le Mans, Angers, Nantes, Laval. |
