Department of the interior and local government

There are ninety-six departments in metropolitan France , with an additional five overseas departments , which are also classified as overseas regions.

Local government code

Departments are further subdivided into arrondissements and 2, cantons as of Each department is administered by an elected body called a departmental council sg. From to April , these were called general councils sg. The earliest known suggestion of it is from in the writings of d'Argenson. The territorial division of Spain reverted due to the French intervention ending the trienio liberal and the territorial division of Spain , which forms the basis of the present day Provinces of Spain with minor modifications, are also based on the French model of departments of roughly equal size.

The number is used, for example, in the postal code and was until recently [ when? Residents commonly use the numbers to refer to their own department or a neighbouring one, for example inhabitants of Loiret may refer to their department as "the 45". More distant departments are generally referred to by their names, as few people know the numbers of all the departments.

Before the French Revolution , France gained territory gradually through the annexation of a mosaic of independent entities. During the Revolution they were dissolved, partly in order to weaken old loyalties.