Geography

In 1914, the territory of France was different from today's France in two important ways : the North-Eastern provinces of Alsace and most of Lorraine had been annexed by Germany in 1870, and the North-African country of Algeria had been established as an integral part of France (a "département") in 1848. France would reacquire Alsace and Lorraine at the end of World War I and lose them again, temporarily, to Germany during World War II. Calls for Algerian indepedence became common after 1945, but with one million Europeans living there, France refused to grant indepedence until a bloody colonial war (the Algerian War of Independence) had turned into a French political and civil crisis; Algeria was given its independence in 1962, unleashing a massive wave of immigration from the former colony back to France.

Demographics

Unlike other European countries, France did not experience a strong population growth in the mid and late 19th century and first half of the 20th century (see Demographics of France). This would be compounded by the massive French losses of World War I -- roughly estimated at 1.4 million French dead including civilians (see World War I casualties) (or nearly 10% of the active adult male population) and four times as many wounded (see World War I#Aftermath) -- and World War II -- estimated at 593,000 French dead (one and a half times the number of U.S. dead), of which 470,000 were civilians (see World War II casualties). From a population of around 39 million in 1880, France still had only a population of 40 million in 1945. The post-war years would bring a massive "baby boom", and with immigration, France reached 50 million in 1968. This growth slowed down in 1974.

Since 1999, France has seen an unprecedented growth in population. In 2004, population growth was 0.68%, almost reaching North American levels (2004 was the year with the highest increase in French population since 1974). France is now well ahead of all other European countries in population growth (except for the Republic of Ireland) and in 2003, France's natural population growth (excluding immigration) was responsible for almost all the natural growth in European population (the population of the European Union increased by 216,000 inhabitants (without immigration), of which 211,000 was the increase in France's population alone, and 5,000 was the increase in all the other countries of the EU combined).

Today, France, with a population of 60 million (or 63 million with overseas territories) is the third most populous country of Europe, behind Russia and Germany.