French Census: Au 1er janvier 2007 (...) la population de la France est estimée à 63,392 millions de personnes dont 61,538 millions en France métropolitaine.
So less than 1m difference, and possibly less if you take into account all the UK expats throughout the commonwealth, who are often in and out of the country.
For practical purposes, the populations are similar enough for overall economy comparisons to make sense. In any case, it is the relative trends that matter (and these cannot yet be ascribed to the effects of one country being run by a "dynamic" president and the other by a "crypto-socialist" PM...) In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
On the official figures, it's still more than 1M difference by the way, the French economy is not the mainland France economy. But again, I suspect (and gather from articles) that there are many more illegals in the UK than in France.
Officially, per capita GDP is still higher in the UK. I don't think it will still be the case in 12 months time though. This despite having fewer holidays. So, yes, the figures do go against the dogma, and I won't complain. But I always though that they were not particularly useful when using exchange rates in any case. Fluctuations are much too high for the comparison to be significant between two countries that are of similar weight. Let's see in PPP. Looking at the London housing prices, it may not be pretty. "The womb that spawned that thing is fertile yet"
You have a point, however, look at the regional data at INSEE:
