This page is one of the annex pages of www.understandfrance.org, the foremost site on Franco-American intercultural differences. It contains documents, facts and figures illustrating the content of some of its pages.

Facts & figures

This page contains Facts and Figures about France and the French. Some are significant, other less so.... France in Europe

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France compared to European countries
Compared Competitiveness According to the World Economic Forum, compared competitiveness (2005 figures) of countries leads to the following ranking :  Finland # 1 USA # 2 Sweden # 3 ...  Japan # 12 UK # 13 Germany # 15 .... France # 30 (even worse than in 2004 : # 27) Belgium : # 31 ... Italy : # 47 China : # 49 The criteria include economic policies, regulatory environment, opinion of business leaders etc. The mediocre ranking of France has many good reasons and is largely deserved. One can only observe (once again) that criteria are not neutral : public expenses are taken into account only negatively, regardless of their social and economic profitability : they are considered a waste of resources. France is therefore penalized when investing in its fast trains (TGV) or nuclear power plants and would improve its ranking if not developping such public investments. More on rankings and read my editorial about it.. Compared attractivity : Paris and other European cities. Number of new implantation of international headquarters in 2005 (Source : Ernst & Young Investment European Monitor 2006, in Le Parisien June 19, 2006) :  Paris  194  Madrid  47  Amsterdam  30  London  177  Frankfurt  40  Düsseldorf  24  Barcelona  64  Budapest  34  Milano  17  Moskow  57  Bruxelles  31  Genève  16  Stoscholm  55  Dublin  30  Berlin  13 Compared attitude toward America, European unity and Globalization : T.R.Reid has elaborated three ratios for the 25 countries. Back to "Europe"		Visions of the French : The 27 countries of Europe are very different, have different languages and a very different history and culture. Not surprisingly, they have a very stereotyped vision of one another. Recent polls illustrate how limited their mutual knowledge is and the kind of cliché that comes to their mind when asked the question " How would you describe the people of such and such European country ? ". Here are the results as summarized by Clodong and Lamarque :   How do other countries see the French :   How do the French see the other European people :   Dutch  restless, talkative, not serious    ecologists, laxist, open, progressive, libertarian, tall  English  chauvinistic, intransigent, cared for by the state, no sense of humour    insular, conceited, monarchist, anti - European, snob, independent, conservative, pragmatic  Germans  conceited, offhand, frivolous    rigorous, hard - workers, serious, disciplined, organized, legalist, formalist  Greeks  not very smart    messy, lazy, indolent, nonchalent  Italians  snobs, arrogant    glib talkers, pleasure seekers, friendly, family - oriented, bon vivant, womanizers, smooth -t alkers, machos, lady killers  Portuguese  lesson givers, haughty    hard - workers, courageous, Catholic, family - oriented, short   Spaniards  cold, distant, impolite, conceited    revellers, warm, traditional, modern, regionalist, noisy, religious, bon vivant   Swedes  disobedient, immoral, disorganized, neocolonialists, dirty    blond, tall, clean, organized, cold, Scandinavian, Nordic, Viking, ecologists  Austrians  The study does not give the vision of the French by the following people but only the vision the French have of them    rigorous, cold, nationalist, xenophobic, haughty, intolerant, clean  Belgians      friendly, francophile, divided, pro - European, warm, French - fry eaters  Cypriots      insular, rustic, divided  Czechs      cultured, poor, pro - European, culturally rich  Danish      cold, clean, blond, tall, artist, melancholic, hard - workers  Estonians      poor, pro - European, invaded, occupied  Finns      courageous, cold, rough, friendly, blond, tenacious, Nordic  Hungarians      warm, sad, intelligent, gypsy  Irish      reveller, courageous, traditionalist, warm, beer - drinkers  Latvians      ? (no image)  Lithuanians      pro - European, poor  Luxemburgers      rich, friendly, pro - European, discreet, wheeler - dealers  Maltese      warm, insular, organized, isolated  Polish      hard - workers, Catholic, courageous, alcoholics, resistants  Slovaks      open, poor, hard - workers  Slovenians      slavic, family - oriented, poor More intercultural

To table of contents To top of the page  Back to home page	Harriet Welty Rochefort writes articles and books about France and the French. Order her books: "French Toast, An American in Paris Celebrates The Maddening Mysteries of the French", St.Martin's Press, New York, 1999 "French Fried, The Culinary Capers of An American in Paris", St.Martin's Press, New York, 2001 More on Harriet's books (excerpts, upcoming events, testimonials, etc..)
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