Regions of France Regions of France France is divided into 18 administrative regions (, ), including 13 metropolitan regions and 5 overseas regions. The 13 metropolitan regions (including 12 mainland regions and Corsica) are each further subdivided into 2 to 13 departments, while the overseas regions consist of only one department each and hence are also referred to as "overseas departments". The current legal concept of "region" was adopted in 1982, and in 2016 what had been 27 regions was reduced to 18. The term "région" was officially created by the Law of Decentralisation (2 March 1982), which also gave regions their legal
Administrative counties of England Administrative counties of England Administrative counties were a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government from 1889 to 1974. They were created by the Local Government Act 1888 as the areas for which county councils were elected. Some large counties were divided into several administrative counties, each with its own county council. The administrative counties were abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 and were replaced by the metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England. In 1888 the government, led by the Tory prime minister Lord Salisbury established county councils throughout England and Wales, covering