French canton

(incl. overseas regions)

(incl. overseas departments)

Urban communities
Agglomeration communities
Commune communities
Syndicates of New Agglomeration

Associated communes
Municipal arrondissements

Overseas collectivities
Sui generis collectivity
Overseas country
Overseas territory
Clipperton Island

The cantons of France are territorial subdivisions of the French Republic's arrondissements and departments.

Apart from their role as organizational units in certain aspects of the administration of public services and justice, the chief purpose of the cantons today is to serve as constituencies for the election of the members of the representative assembly (General Council) in each department. For this reason, such elections are known in France as "cantonal elections".

There are currently 4,055 cantons (including 172 overseas) in France. Most of them group together some communes (the lowest administrative division of the French Republic), although larger communes may comprise several cantons, since the cantons are intended to be roughly equal in size of population – unlike the communes, which range in size from more than two million inhabitants (Paris) to just one person (Rochefourchat).

The role of the canton is, essentially, to provide a framework for departmental elections. Each canton elects a person to represent it at the conseil général du département – or general council for the department, which is the principal administrative division of the French Republic.