Communes of France

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (January 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Communes of France" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article's factual accuracy is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help to ensure that disputed statements are reliably sourced. (December 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Communes of France
Category	Municipality
Location	France
Found in	Departments
Number	34,965 (List) (as of January 2021)
Populations	1 (Rochefourchat) – 2,175,601 (Paris)
Areas	0.04 km2 (Castelmoron-d'Albret) – 18,360 km2 (Maripasoula)
Government	Municipal council

This article is part of a series on the
Administrative divisions of France
Administrative divisions
Regions Departments Arrondissements Cantons
Intercommunality
Métropole Communauté urbaine Communauté d'agglomération Communauté de communes
Communes
Associated communes Municipal arrondissements
Overseas France
Overseas departments and regions Overseas collectivities Overseas country (French Polynesia) Sui generis collectivity (New Caledonia) Overseas territory (French Southern and Antarctic Lands) Clipperton Island
Geocodes of France
ISO NUTS
France portal
v t e

The commune (French pronunciation: [kɔmyn] ^ⓘ) is a level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are analogous to civil townships and incorporated municipalities in the United States and Canada, Gemeinden in Germany, comuni in Italy, or municipios in Spain. The UK equivalent are civil parishes. Communes are based on historical geographic communities or villages and are vested with significant powers to manage the populations and land of the geographic area covered. The communes are the fourth-level administrative divisions of France.

Communes vary widely in size and area, from large sprawling cities with millions of inhabitants like Paris, to small hamlets with only a handful of inhabitants. Communes typically are based on pre-existing villages and facilitate local governance. All communes have names, but not all named geographic areas or groups of people residing together are communes ("lieu dit" or "bourg"), the difference residing in the lack of administrative powers. Except for the municipal arrondissements of its largest cities, the communes are the lowest level of administrative division in France and are governed by elected officials including a mayor (maire) and a municipal council (conseil municipal). They have extensive autonomous powers to implement national policy.