Approximately 150 (in the winter) to 310 (in the summer) people are usually present in the French Southern and Antarctic Lands at any time, but they are mainly made up of military personnel, officials, scientific researchers and support staff.

[11] Adelie Land was the last to be discovered, in 1840 by the French during an expedition led by Jules Dumont d'Urville, who would later have a research station on the island named after him.

Formerly, they were administered from Paris by an administrateur supérieur assisted by a secretary-general; since December 2004, however, their administrator has been a préfet, currently Florence Jeanblanc-Risler,[15][16] with headquarters in Saint Pierre on Réunion Island.

The headquarters of the district chief lies beyond the TAAF, in Saint Pierre on Réunion Island.c The Territory's principal station is Martin-de-Viviès on Amsterdam Island.

Adélie Land, named by the French explorer Jules Dumont d’Urville after his wife, covers about 432,000 km2 (167,000 sq mi).

The islands, totaling 7,781 km2 (3,004 sq mi), have no indigenous inhabitants, although in 1997 there were approximately 100 researchers whose numbers varied from winter (July) to summer (January).

Terre Adélie, the Antarctic sector claimed by France, is supplied by L’Astrolabe, which sails out of Hobart in Tasmania.

Regarding maritime activity, the territory maintains a merchant marine fleet totaling (as of 1999) 2,892,911 GRT/5,165,713 tonnes deadweight (DWT).

Because of their isolation and subpolar location, the French Southern Lands are relatively depauperate of vegetation, with both Saint-Paul and Crozet having no native tree or shrub species.

[24] Some species of endemic invertebrates have also been recorded on the islands, including moths and flies which have lost their wings in the absence of predators.

Economic activity is limited to servicing meteorological and geophysical research stations and French and other fishing fleets.

The French Southern Territories (i.e. the TAAF excluding Adélie Land) have been given the following country codes: FS (FIPS) and TF (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2).