French counties

In addition to 96 metropolitan departments, France includes four overseas departments (DOM) - Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana and Reunion - and four overseas territories (TOM) - New Caledonia, French Polynesia, the French Southern and Antarctic lands, and Wallis and Futuna Islands. To these must be added the "territorial collectivities" of Mayotte and St. Pierre-et-Miquelon. In all, these territories cover an area of some 559,000 sq. km. worldwide. After the United States and the United Kingdom France possesses the world's third largest coastal area, giving the country an "exclusive economic zone" of some 10 million sq. km. (The exclusive economic zone is an area within a 200-mile distance of the coast where states have sovereign rights to the use of certain natural, biological or plant resources.)