
Paris, France
News
About Paris, France
With a 2005 GDP of €478.7 billion, the Paris
region has the highest GDPs in Europe, making it an engine of
the global economy: were it a country, it would rank as the
fourteenth largest economy in the world.
The Paris Region is France's premier centre of economic
activity: while its population accounted for 18.7% of the total
population of metropolitan France in 2005, its GDP was about
28.5% of the same.
Activity in the Paris urban area is diverse. Recently the
Paris economy has been shifting towards high value-added
service industries (finance, IT services, etc.) and high-tech
manufacturing (electronics, optics, aerospace, etc).
The Paris region's most intense economic activity through
the central Hauts-de-Seine département and suburban La Défense
business district places Paris' economic centre to the west of
the city, in a triangle between the Opéra Garnier, La Défense
and the Val de Seine.
Paris' administrative borders have little consequences on
the limits of its economic activity: although most workers
commute from the suburbs to work in the city, many commute from
the city to work in the suburbs.
At the 1999 census, 47.5% of the 5,089,170 people in
employment in the Paris urban area worked in the city of Paris
and the Hauts-de-Seine département, while only 31.5% worked
exclusively in Paris.
Although the Paris economy is largely dominated by services,
it remains an important manufacturing powerhouse of Europe,
especially in industrial sectors such as automobiles,
aeronautics, and electronics.
Over recent decades, the local economy has moved towards
high value-added activities, in particular business
services.
The 1999 census indicated that of the 5,089,170 persons
employed in the Paris urban area, 16.5% worked in business
services, 13.0% in commerce (retail and wholesale trade), 12.3%
in manufacturing, 10.0% in public administrations and defence,
8.7% in health services, 8.2% in transportation and
communications, 6.6% in education, and the remaining 24.7% in
many other economic sectors.
Other Major Cities:
- Marseille
- Lyon
- Toulouse
- Nice
- Nantes
- Strasbourg
- Montpellier
- Bordeaux
- Lille
- Rennes
- Reims
- Le Havre
|