| Transcript |
| 0:00 | · | [Music] |
| 0:00 | · | france is one of europe's and one of the |
| 0:02 | · | world's most significant countries home |
| 0:04 | · | to 68 million people france is the third |
| 0:06 | · | most populous nation in europe while the |
| 0:08 | · | french economy is the seventh largest in |
| 0:10 | · | the world nearly identical in size to |
| 0:12 | · | india a country with 20 times the |
| 0:15 | · | population the french language and |
| 0:16 | · | french culture are widely known |
| 0:18 | · | throughout the world while the french |
| 0:19 | · | military is the eighth best funded in |
| 0:21 | · | the world with bases all across the |
| 0:23 | · | planet france is a major global great |
| · | Geography |
| 0:26 | · | power and has been for centuries now |
| 0:29 | · | which is why it's so surprising that |
| 0:31 | · | nearly a third of the country here is |
| 0:33 | · | basically just an empty void and |
| 0:36 | · | partially because of that france has |
| 0:38 | · | been diminishing in influence for |
| 0:40 | · | centuries and continues to do so for |
| 0:43 | · | decades people have famously identified |
| 0:45 | · | metropolitan france in europe as looking |
| 0:47 | · | like a hexagon which is why the country |
| 0:50 | · | is so often referred to as simply |
| 0:52 | · | lexagon and due to this unique shape |
| 0:54 | · | it's incredibly easy to look at france |
| 0:56 | · | through the lens of geometry when |
| 0:58 | · | discussing regions statistics demography |
| 1:01 | · | and history for instance if you take a |
| 1:03 | · | map of france and you draw a diagonal |
| 1:04 | · | line from the port city of l'ove on the |
| 1:06 | · | english channel over to straight through |
| 1:08 | · | the center of marseille on the |
| 1:09 | · | mediterranean you'll cut the country |
| 1:11 | · | roughly in half and yet sixty percent of |
| 1:14 | · | the french live to the east of this line |
| 1:16 | · | while only forty percent live to the |
| 1:18 | · | west of it a fact that can be seen |
| 1:20 | · | significantly more clearly when you |
| 1:21 | · | switch out the map for a population |
| 1:23 | · | density map but what's far more |
| 1:25 | · | interesting than that line are these |
| 1:27 | · | lines in between them is a stretch of |
| 1:29 | · | france nearly 1 000 kilometers long and |
| 1:32 | · | about 400 kilometers wide on average |
| 1:35 | · | nearly one-third of france's entire |
| 1:37 | · | territory that's about the same size as |
| 1:39 | · | belarus within this large zone the |
| 1:42 | · | population density of people is only |
| 1:43 | · | about 30 persons per square kilometer |
| 1:46 | · | about the same as the us state of west |
| 1:48 | · | virginia which has led to french |
| 1:50 | · | demographers referring to the area as |
| 1:52 | · | france's empty diagonal and while in |
| 1:54 | · | reality that's hardly empty compared |
| 1:56 | · | with the rest of france and europe it is |
| 1:59 | · | a strange anomaly throughout the |
| 2:01 | · | entirety of france on average the |
| 2:03 | · | population density is more like 120 |
| 2:05 | · | people per square kilometer four times |
| 2:08 | · | more than the density of people living |
| 2:09 | · | within the diagonal to give even more |
| 2:11 | · | perspective neighboring germany has a |
| 2:13 | · | population density of 232 |
| 2:16 | · | per square kilometer while england has |
| 2:18 | · | more like 270 and is therefore nine |
| 2:21 | · | times as densely populated as france's |
| 2:24 | · | diagonal france is politically divided |
| 2:26 | · | between 18 regions that are further |
| 2:28 | · | split up into departments and then into |
| 2:31 | · | communes somewhat similar to how america |
| 2:33 | · | divides itself into states and counties |
| 2:35 | · | the least populated department in france |
| 2:37 | · | is loser with just a total of 76 000 |
| 2:40 | · | inhabitants for all its nearly 5 200 |
| 2:43 | · | square kilometers that is comparable in |
| 2:45 | · | size to the state of palestine [sic] which is |
| 2:48 | · | home to more than 5 million people while |
| 2:50 | · | the entire population of lausaire could |
| 2:52 | · | all fit comfortably into wembley stadium |
| 2:54 | · | in london with 24 000 seats left over to |
| 2:58 | · | spare and of course loser is directly in |
| 3:00 | · | the center of the empty diagonal the |
| 3:03 | · | most sparsely populated region of france |
| 3:05 | · | where loser is hardly an exception all |
| 3:08 | · | of these departments running through the |
| 3:10 | · | center of france are substantially less |
| 3:12 | · | populated than those on either side of |
| 3:14 | · | it to the west and the east so what's |
| 3:16 | · | been causing this anomaly and the core |
| 3:18 | · | of one of europe's largest countries to |
| 3:20 | · | be happening well for one thing it's |
| · | History |
| 3:22 | · | been important to understand some of the |
| 3:24 | · | prior demographic history of france |
| 3:26 | · | which i promise is actually fascinating |
| 3:29 | · | the french philosopher agust compt once |
| 3:32 | · | said the demography is destiny and for |
| 3:35 | · | centuries france's demography guaranteed |
| 3:38 | · | much of the nation's successes and |
| 3:39 | · | influence for most of history france was |
| 3:42 | · | by far the most populous country on the |
| 3:44 | · | european continent during the medieval |
| 3:46 | · | period more than one out of every four |
| 3:48 | · | people in europe were french and even by |
| 3:51 | · | the 17th century it was still one out of |
| 3:53 | · | every five during the french |
| 3:55 | · | revolutionary and napoleonic wars france |
| 3:58 | · | was still the most populous nation in |
| 4:00 | · | europe and they had a higher population |
| 4:02 | · | than even the entirety of russia and |
| 4:04 | · | nearly double the population of the |
| 4:06 | · | united kingdom in fact at the time of |
| 4:09 | · | napoleon france was the fourth most |
| 4:11 | · | populous country in the entire world |
| 4:14 | · | lagging only behind china india and |
| 4:16 | · | japan such a huge population compared |
| 4:19 | · | with all of her neighbors helps to |
| 4:20 | · | explain france's dominance in european |
| 4:23 | · | affairs throughout the medieval |
| 4:25 | · | renaissance and early industrial periods |
| 4:27 | · | but beginning in the 19th century this |
| 4:30 | · | demographic dominance over all of her |
| 4:32 | · | neighbors began to shift away |
| 4:34 | · | dramatically the birth rate in france |
| 4:36 | · | began to diminish in the late 18th |
| 4:38 | · | century far before they began to do so |
| 4:40 | · | in every other european country and then |
| 4:42 | · | during the revolutionary and napoleonic |
| 4:44 | · | wars nearly 2 million french citizens |
| 4:47 | · | were killed which led to france's low |
| 4:49 | · | population growth throughout the rest of |
| 4:51 | · | the 19th century for many years in |
| 4:53 | · | france across the 1800s the number of |
| 4:56 | · | deaths in the country exceeded the |
| 4:58 | · | number of births and then during the |
| 5:00 | · | first world war france lost 10 |
| 5:04 | · | of its entire active male population in |
| 5:07 | · | just four years 1.3 million french were |
| 5:12 | · | killed during the war and along with |
| 5:14 | · | even more births being forgone by |
| 5:16 | · | millions of potential fathers being away |
| 5:18 | · | at war the french population dropped by |
| 5:21 | · | more than 3 million and of course the |
| 5:24 | · | areas that were hit the hardest by this |
| 5:25 | · | population drop was the rural french |
| 5:28 | · | countryside because at the same time |
| 5:30 | · | that these trends were happening france |
| 5:32 | · | was also rapidly urbanizing and the |
| 5:34 | · | population was becoming highly |
| 5:36 | · | centralized around just a few key |
| 5:39 | · | population centers marseille leon liu |
| 5:42 | · | and most importantly of all paris the |
| 5:44 | · | ever-growing city beginning in the 17th |
| 5:47 | · | century paris began to grow larger and |
| 5:49 | · | larger as hundreds of thousands of |
| 5:51 | · | peasants from the french countryside |
| 5:53 | · | continuously moved there in search of |
| 5:55 | · | better opportunities at the beginning of |
| 5:57 | · | the 20th century 40 of the french |
| 5:59 | · | population were still living in the |
| 6:01 | · | rural countryside but over decades of |
| 6:04 | · | intense societal pressures coming from |
| 6:06 | · | millions of deaths from war millions of |
| 6:08 | · | men being away at war decreasing |
| 6:10 | · | fertility rates and ever-increasing |
| 6:12 | · | rates of urbanization just 85 years |
| 6:15 | · | later in 1985 that rate of french |
| 6:18 | · | residing in the countryside had |
| 6:19 | · | plummeted down to only eight percent and |
| 6:23 | · | by then nearly one out of every five |
| 6:26 | · | french were living in just the paris |
| 6:28 | · | metropolitan area alone but while |
| 6:31 | · | urbanization and war certainly had |
| 6:33 | · | massive effects on the population of the |
| 6:35 | · | french countryside not all areas were |
| 6:37 | · | affected evenly the mountainous areas of |
| 6:39 | · | the french alps for example while |
| 6:41 | · | technically having a slightly dipping |
| 6:43 | · | population have a thriving tourism |
| 6:46 | · | industry and the majority of the french |
| 6:48 | · | wine country while also very rural also |
| 6:50 | · | continues to have a thriving industry |
| 6:52 | · | and tourism appeal that has kept the |
| 6:54 | · | areas decently well populated but there |
| 6:57 | · | are larger geographic issues at play |
| 6:59 | · | here as well that help to explain the |
| 7:01 | · | lack of people in the empty diagonal |
| 7:03 | · | when looking back at the map you'll see |
| 7:05 | · | that the empty diagonal spans one |
| 7:07 | · | landlocked end of france by its border |
| 7:09 | · | with belgium to another landlocked end |
| 7:11 | · | by its border with spain and while not |
| 7:13 | · | every coastal area in france is highly |
| 7:16 | · | populated and makes sense than many of |
| 7:18 | · | them would be as 40 of the entire global |
| 7:21 | · | human population lives within just 100 |
| 7:24 | · | kilometers of a coastline so by drawing |
| 7:27 | · | these lines across the french interior |
| 7:29 | · | you're essentially drawing a line from |
| 7:31 | · | one area that would be statistically |
| 7:32 | · | less populated to another area that |
| 7:35 | · | would also be statistically less |
| 7:37 | · | populated in fact if you ignore |
| 7:39 | · | international borders entirely the empty |
| 7:41 | · | diagonals population trend continues and |
| 7:43 | · | even expands its width across the |
| 7:45 | · | pyrenees into spain a country dealing |
| 7:48 | · | with its own demographic issues in the |
| 7:50 | · | form of low birth rates but there's |
| 7:52 | · | still more to it than just not being |
| 7:54 | · | near the coast the areas that the |
| 7:56 | · | diagonal cover are largely agricultural |
| 7:59 | · | land and throughout the world as |
| 8:01 | · | agriculture has become more automated |
| 8:02 | · | and industrialized less workers in the |
| 8:05 | · | industry are needed in fact 40 years ago |
| 8:07 | · | about 1.6 million people in france |
| 8:10 | · | worked in agriculture whereas now it's |
| 8:12 | · | roughly only four hundred thousand or |
| 8:15 | · | four times less people fewer jobs and |
| 8:18 | · | fewer opportunities to make a living |
| 8:20 | · | inevitably mean that people eventually |
| 8:22 | · | move on and regardless of the country |
| 8:24 | · | low population density itself can become |
| 8:26 | · | a sort of self-repeating feedback loop |
| 8:29 | · | as well areas with lower population |
| 8:31 | · | often have minimal commercial activity |
| 8:33 | · | and as the already small population ages |
| 8:35 | · | there's nothing keeping the younger |
| 8:37 | · | generations in the area so they leave |
| 8:40 | · | not just for work but also for all the |
| 8:42 | · | amenities that other more thriving areas |
| 8:45 | · | can bring and while the french |
| 8:47 | · | government has expressed concerns over |
| 8:48 | · | the issue and even funded research into |
| 8:50 | · | how to fix it there remains no real |
| 8:53 | · | answer while france's geography makes |
| 8:55 | · | this issue seem relatively unique to |
| 8:57 | · | france it really isn't demographic |
| 9:00 | · | shifts from the countryside to the |
| 9:01 | · | cities is a global phenomenon and so too |
| 9:05 | · | is the fact that more people generally |
| 9:06 | · | tend to live closer to the coastlines |
| 9:08 | · | where there's just more economic |
| 9:10 | · | activity therefore it shouldn't really |
| 9:12 | · | be too surprising after all that wow |
| 9:15 | · | people actually do be living in cities |
| 9:17 | · | now if you want to start analyzing your |
| 9:19 | · | own worldwide geographic and demographic |
| 9:21 | · | trends you're gonna need a pretty solid |
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