Transport and infrastructure in France

Our listing of the primary types of transport compares the infrastructure of France with the average of all countries in Europe. Overall, the traffic routes are above average and in good condition.

In terms of the length of its rail network, France ranks 38th in the world with 0.44 meters per inhabitant. In total, the rail network is 29,640 kilometers long. Freight traffic on the rails most recently totaled 35.75 billion tons and kilometers traveled. Passenger traffic reached 86.85 billion passenger-kilometers in 2021.

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Back to overview: France

Road traffic

The network of roads and highways has a total length of 1.05 million km. For each of the country's 67.75 million inhabitants, this corresponds to 15.55 meters. This puts France in 34th place in the global ranking. However, the country's size and population density of around 123 inhabitants per km² must also be taken into account. Countries with fewer inhabitants in the same or even larger area naturally achieve quite different values here and have to connect remote areas to the transport network despite a smaller population.

With an average of 3586 traffic fatalities per year (2013 - 2019), road traffic in France is considered relatively safe. This corresponds to 5.4 accident fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants per year. By comparison, this figure is 12.3 in the USA and 17.0 worldwide.

In France, traffic drives on the right-hand side of the road, i.e. people drive in the right-hand lane and overtake on the left. Oncoming traffic comes toward you on the left side. This regulation was enforced in January 1st, 1970. Here you can also find an overview of all countries with left-hand traffic.

	total	per 1 mio inhabitants	per km²
	France
Roadways	1,053,200 km	15,545.69 km	1,918.12 m
Railroads	29,600 km	437.49 km	53.98 m
Waterways	0 km	0.00 km	0.00 m
Commercial harbors	548	8.09	0.001
Airports	61	0.90	0.111

	total	per 1 mio inhabitants	per km²
	Europe
Roadways	6,708,900 km	11,154.38 km	1,111.71 m
Railroads	258,600 km	429.97 km	42.85 m
Waterways	54,800 km	91.17 km	9.09 m
Commercial harbors	15,273	25.39	0.003
Airports	573	0.95	0.000

Data sources used

• Global Health Observatory Data Repository (World Health Organization)
• UNCTAD
• Internation Union of Railways (UIC)
• CIA Factbook
• OECD Statistics
• Wikipedia (german)

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