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....
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(credit) |
Sciences and research
Best
French research centers which are NOT universities (Source CNRS
- published in Les Echos 12/3/2007):
Institution |
Number of publications
1996-2006 |
Impact = citations
per publication |
Global ranking |
Comment |
CNRS (Centre
National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
47,143 |
11
|
32 |
Global #8 in
chemistry |
CEA (Commissariat
à l'Energie Atomique) |
23,218 |
11
|
100 |
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Institut Pasteur |
11,568 |
22
|
103 |
Global #2 in
microbiology |
INRA (Institut
National de Recherche Agronomique) |
18,525 |
11
|
145 |
Global #2 in
agricultural sciences and in vegetal and animal biology |
INSERM (Institut
National de Recherche Médicale) |
10,686 |
14
|
215 |
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Institut Curie |
3,259 |
21
|
443 |
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Collège de France |
2,790 |
19
|
518 |
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Observatoire de Paris |
3,780 |
23
|
570 |
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ESRF (European
Synchrotron Radiation Facility) |
3,867 |
10
|
664 |
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ILL (Institut
Laue-Langevin) |
3,201 |
10
|
744 |
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Museum National d'Histoire
Naturelle |
3,537 |
6
|
897 |
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Institut d'Astrophysique |
1,177 |
19
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961 |
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IFREMER (Institut
Français de Recherche sur la Mer) |
2,131 |
9
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1029 |
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CEA Saclay |
1,195 |
16
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1039 |
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INRIA (Institut
Français de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique) |
3,592 |
5
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1061 |
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Regarding the universities, the results
are less than flattering :
Paris VI |
25,053 |
10
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104 |
Global #1 in
mathematics, excellent rankings in chemistry, physics,... |
Paris XI |
20,271 |
11
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132 |
Excellent ranking
in physics |
Strasbourg I |
12,367 |
15
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164 |
Excellent ranking
in chemistry |
Paris VII |
10,697 |
11
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285 |
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Lyon I |
11,918 |
9
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297 |
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Grenoble I |
9,931 |
10
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315 |
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Montpellier II |
9,628 |
9
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348 |
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Ecole Polytechnique |
10,142 |
9
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363 |
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Ecole Normale Supérieure |
6,085 |
13
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365 |
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More about rankings....
Environmental data
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CO2
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ESI
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IDE
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France |
217,5
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55,2
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14
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USA |
522,1
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52,9
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18
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UK |
298,9
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50,2
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27
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Germany |
349,5
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56,9
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19
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Italy |
300,5
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50,1
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25
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Sweden |
n/a
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n/a
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3 (best)
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Japan |
n/a
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n/a
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24
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Switzerland |
136,5 (best)
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63,7 (best)
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n/a
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- CO2 = tons of CO2 / million
US$ of GNP (source : IMD 2006)
- ESI = Yale Environmental Sustainability
Index 2005 (includes 76 data)
- IDE = Index of Environmental
Sustainability (World Economic Forum, 2002) (68 data)
- Back to Environment
page.
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Back to page Environment
North-South
Socialization
and political culture : the North/South difference : Arval (Association
pour la Recherche sur les Systèmes de Valeurs) is a sociological
team which publishes comparative studies between European countries
and studies of the evolution of values. The last published survey
(Futuribles, Les Valeurs des Européens, N°277
Juillet 2002) illustrates clearly the difference between Northern
Europe (Protestant) and Southern Europe (Catholic) |
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Country |
Index of confidence in other people |
Member of an association |
Politization index |
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% of members of a labor union in 2000 |
Northern |
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Sweden |
64 |
96 |
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81 |
Europe |
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Denmark |
64 |
84 |
60 |
87,5 |
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Netherlands |
59 |
93 |
72 |
27 |
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Finland |
57 |
80 |
30 |
79 |
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Germany |
33 |
51 |
60 |
29,7 |
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Austria |
31 |
67 |
64 |
39,8 |
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Great-Britain |
29 |
34 |
38 |
29,5 |
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Belgium |
28 |
66 |
42 |
69,2 |
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Luxembourg |
25 |
59 |
52 |
50 |
Southern |
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Ireland |
35 |
57 |
43 |
44,5 |
Europe |
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France |
21 |
40 |
40 |
9,1 |
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Spain |
36 |
31 |
27 |
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Italy |
32 |
42 |
39 |
35,4 |
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Greece |
18 |
48 |
44 |
32,5 |
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Portugal |
10 |
24 |
33 |
30 |
Altogether |
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Europe |
31 |
46 |
45 |
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This
comparative study (along with many other studies) illustrates
the well-known North/South split (civic sense, importance of
being part of a community, collective values, ...). Here again,
France is in an intermediary position.
Miscellaneous
-
The first brownser was developed
by two scientists of the Centre Européen de Recherche
Nucléaire (CERN), Robert CAILLEAU and Tim BERNERS who
invented the "www." On April 30, 1993, the (French)
director of CERN declared "Web technologies belong to mankind
: they are free of rights and can be used freely". No patent
was taken. One year later, Netscape patented it and started selling
it !
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The first flight by a plane with an engine was the flight by Gustav Weisskopf (1901) and not the flight by Wright (1903).
- Largest gold reserves (Sept.2009) in tons (source : IHT 7 Nov.2009) :
- USA : 8,134
- Germany : 3,408
- Int.Monetary Fund : 3,017
- Italy : 2,452
- France : 2,445
- China : 1,054
- Switzerland : 1,040
- Japan : 765
- Netherlands : 613
- Russia : 568
- India : 557
- European Central Bank : 501
Back to money
- Nobel prizes and smaller institutions
In 2016, two US specialists of education (Jonathan Wai/Duke Univ. & Stephen Hsu/Univ. of Michigan) ranked 81 institutions which have three or more alumni who were awarded a Nobel prize. They divided the number of Nobel prizes b y the total number of alumni and the result is (Nobel prizes per 10,000 alumni) :
1. Ecole Normale Supérieure (France) : 13,5
2. CalTech (USA) : 6,7
3. Harvard (USA) : 3,2
4. Swarthmore College (USA) : 2,7
5. Cambridge Univ. (UK) : 2,5
6. Ecole Polytechnique (France) : 2,5
7. MIT (USA) : 2,5
8. Columbia (USA) : 2,1
9. Amherst (USA) : 1,9
10. Chicago (USA) : 1,7
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- Number of new patents in 2010 (Source : OMPI, Le Figaro Feb.11, 2010) :
- #1 USA : 44 855,
- #2 Japan : 32 156,
- #3 Germany : 17 171,
- #4 China : 12 337,
- #5 Korea : 9 686,
- #6 France 7 193,
- #7 UK : 4 857,
- #8 Netherlands : 4 097,
- #9 Switzerland : 3 611
- ,#10 Sweden : 3 152
Corresponding Figures in 2015 (Source : European Patent Office):
- #1 : USA = 71,745 (+6.8%/2013)
- #2 : Japan = 48,657 (-4.4%)
- #3 : Germany = 31,647 (-0.8%)
- #4 : China = 26,472 (+18.2%)
- #5 : Korea = 16,358 (+2.3%)
- #6 : France = 12,873 (+4%)
- #7 : Netherland = 8,104 (+9.1%)
- #8 : Switzerland = 7.890 (-3.1%)
- #9 : UK = 6,823 (+4.8%)
- #10 : Sweden = 5,132 (0%)
Leading French corporations in terms of patents : Alcatel, Technicolor, CEA, Valeo, Safran, INSERM, Saint-Gobain, Sanofi, Peugeot, Renault.
- Inward investment
in France in 2005 (source
: Invest in France Agency 2006) :
USA |
29,0%
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Belg. |
4,6%
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China |
1,9%
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Germ. |
20,1%
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Neth. |
3,8%
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Canada |
1,5%
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UK |
8,8%
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Spain |
3,8%
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Denm. |
1,4%
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Sweden |
7,5%
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Italy |
3,4%
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Turk. |
1,4%
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Japan |
4,8%
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Switz. |
2,0%
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Misc. |
6,0%
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That same year (AmCham,
2005), US firms held $55 billion in France in investment stock
when France firms held $143 billion in the US. Back to US
corporations in France.
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Harriet Welty
Rochefort writes articles and books about France and the French.
Order her books:
- "Joie de Vivre", Secrets of Wining, Dining and Romancing like the French, St.Martin's Press, New York, 2012
- "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
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