How many people live in France?
Demographics of France
The demography of France is monitored by the Institut national d'études démographiques (INED) and the Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (INSEE). As of 1 January 2018, 67.19 million people lived in France (67,186,638), including all the five overseas departments (2,141,000), but excluding the overseas collectivities and territories (604,000). 65,017,000 of these lived in Metropolitan France, which is mainland France located in Europe.
History of France
Peasants made up the vast majority of population, who in many cases had well-established rights that the authorities had to respect. In 1484, about 97% of France's 13 million people lived in rural villages; in 1700, at least 80% of the 20 million people population were peasants.
Axelle Lemaire
In 2012 Lemaire was returned as Deputy for one of the eleven newly created constituencies, each elected by French overseas citizens to the French National Assembly. The constituency she represented as inaugural Deputy includes all registered French citizens living in the ten countries throughout Northern Europe—Iceland, Norway, Denmark (including the Faroe Islands and Greenland), Sweden, Finland, Great Britain, and Northern Ireland, Ireland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. As of 2011, it recorded 140,731 French citizens on its electoral roll, with the vast majority (113,655) living in the United Kingdom, which has the third-largest French expat population in the world. Consequently, her election campaign received considerable attention at the time from the British press.
Immigration to France
Reading: 436 576 immigrants live in Paris, representing 20% of Parisians and 22.4% of immigrants in Ile-de-France.
162 635 children under 20 with at least one immigrant parent live in Paris, representing 41.3% of the total of children under 20 in Paris
and 15.4% of the total of children under 20 with at least one immigrant parent in Ile-de-France.
Demographics of France
As of 2004, French conservative think-tank "Institut Montaigne" estimated that there were 60 million (85%) white people of European origin, 6 million (10%) North African people, 2 million (3.5%) Black people and 1 million (1.5%) people of Asian origin in Metropolitan France, including all generations of immigrant descendants.
Immigration to Europe
As of 2008, the French national institute of statistics (INSEE) estimated that 5.3 million foreign-born immigrants and 6.5 million direct descendants of immigrants (born in France with at least one immigrant parent) lived in France. This represents a total of 11.8 million, or 19% of the population. In terms of origin, about 5.5 million are European, four million Maghrebi, one million Sub-Saharan African, and 400,000 Turkish. Among the 5.3 million foreign-born immigrants, 38% are from Europe, 30% from Maghreb, 12.5% from Sub-Saharan Africa, 14.2% from Asia and 5.3% from America and Oceania The most significant countries of origin as of 2008 were Algeria (713,000), Morocco (653,000), Portugal (580,000), Italy (317,000), Spain (257,000), Turkey (238,000) and Tunisia (234,000). However, immigration from Asia (especially China, as well as the former French colonies of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos), and from Sub-Saharan Africa (Senegal, Mali, Nigeria and others), is gaining in importance.
Immigration to France
In 2014 The National Institute of Statistics (INSEE, for its acronym in French) published a study on Thursday, according to which has doubled the number of Italian, Portuguese and Spanish immigrants in France between 2009 and 2012.
According to the French Institute, this increase resulting from the financial crisis that hit several European countries in that period, has pushed up the number of Europeans installed in France.
Statistics on Spanish immigrants in France show a growth of 107 percent between 2009 and 2012, i.e. in this period went from 5300 to 11,000 people.
Of the total of 229,000 foreigners arriving to France in 2012, nearly 8% were Portuguese, British 5%, Spanish 5%, Italians 4%, Germans 4%, Romanians 3%, and Belgians 3%.
France
In 2008, the INSEE estimated that the total number of foreign-born immigrants was around 5 million (8% of the population), while their French-born descendants numbered 6.5 million, or 11% of the population. Thus, nearly a fifth of the country's population were either first or second-generation immigrants, of which more than 5 million were of European origin and 4 million of Maghrebi ancestry. In 2008, France granted citizenship to 137,000 persons, mostly to people from Morocco, Algeria and Turkey.
Armenians in France
As the Institut national d'études démographiques, France's national statistics agency, does not collect data on ethnicity there is no reliable information about the number of French people of Armenian ancestry. Various experts, media and organizations have estimated the number of French Armenians to be 250,000, 300,000, 400,000, 450,000, 500,000, 500,000-700,000, 750,000. As of 2005, there were 12,355 Armenian-born people residing in France.
Ranked list of French regions
The total area of France is 635,775 km², of which 543,974 km² (85.6%) is in Europe.
In 2016, the official population of France had a density of 104.8 people per square kilometre, including the overseas regions, and 118.5 people per square kilometre excluding them.
Antisemitism in 21st-century France
At the turn of the 21st century, France had an estimated 500,000 to 600,000 Jews, most of them Sephardic and of North African origin. This is the second-largest population outside of Israel, and after that in the United States. A quarter of the historic Ashkenazi Jewish population in France died in the Holocaust of World War II. After the war, the French government passed laws to suppress antisemitic discrimination and actions, and to protect Jews in the country.
Social issue
There is a certain fragility of income and social position in France. There are several ways to measure this. One possibility is to look at unemployment. Inside the European Union, in May 2017, France was ranked 6th country with its unemployment rate of 9.4 percent, according to Statista. Moreover, according to Observatoire des inégalités, France has between 5 and 8.9 millions of poor people, depending on the definition of poverty (if the poverty line is at 50 percent of the median standard of living or if it's 60 percent).
Demographics of France
The region with the largest proportion of immigrants is the Île-de-France (Greater Paris), where 40% of immigrants live. Other important regions are Rhône-Alpes (Lyon) and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (Marseille). The most important individual countries of origin as of 2007 were Algeria (702,000), Morocco (645,000), Portugal (576,000), Italy (323,000), Spain (262,000) and Turkey (234,000). However, immigration from Asia (especially China), as well as from sub-Saharan Africa (Senegal, Mali) is gaining in importance.
French colonial empire
French census statistics from 1931 show an imperial population, outside of France itself, of 64.3 million people living on 11.9 million square kilometers. Of the total population, 39.1 million lived in Africa and 24.5 million lived in Asia; 700,000 lived in the Caribbean area or islands in the South Pacific. The largest colonies were Indochina with 21.5 million (in five separate colonies), Algeria with 6.6 million, Morocco, with 5.4 million, and West Africa with 14.6 million in nine colonies. The total includes 1.9 million Europeans, and 350,000 "assimilated" natives.
Demographics of France
Immigrants by selected countries as of 2014:
According to Michèle Tribalat, researcher at INED, there were, in 1999, approximately 14 million persons of foreign ancestry (about a quarter of the population), defined as either immigrants or people with at least one immigrant parent or grandparent. Half of them were of European ancestry (including 5.2 million from South Europe (Italy, Spain, Portugal and former Yugoslavia)). The rest were from Maghreb (3 million), Sub-saharan Africa (680,000), Turkey (320,000) and other parts of the world (2.5 million). Immigrants from the Maghreb are commonly referred to as "beur", a verlan slang term derived from the word "arabe" (French for Arab).
Religion in France
According to a survey held by Institut français d'opinion publique (Ifop) for the Institut Montaigne think-tank, 51.1% of the total population of France was Christian in 2016. The following year, a survey by Ipsos focused on Protestants and based on 31,155 interviews found that 57.5% of the total population of France declared to be Catholic and 3.1% declared to be Protestant.
Romani people in France
Romani people in France, generally known in spoken French as "gitans", "tsiganes" or "manouches", are an ethnic group which originated in Northern India. The exact numbers of Romani people in France are not known, with estimates varying from 20,000 to 400,000. At least 12,000 Romani are estimated to live in unofficial urban camps throughout the country, with French authorities often attempting to close down these encampments. In 2009, the French government sent more than 10,000 foreign Romani back to Romania and Bulgaria.
Immigration to France
The region with the largest proportion of immigrants is the Île-de-France (Greater Paris), where 40% of immigrants live. According to INSEE, French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies, responsible for the production and analysis of official statistics in France, about 35% of people (4 millions) living in Île-de-France, are either immigrant (17%) or born to at least one immigrant parent (18%) in 2006.
History of France
France experienced a baby boom after 1945; it reversed a long-term record of low birth rates. In addition, there was a steady immigration, especially from former French colonies in North Africa. The population grew from 41 million in 1946, to 50 million in 1966, and 60 million by 1990. The farm population decline sharply, from 35% of the workforce in 1945 to under 5% by 2000. By 2004, France had the second highest birthrate in Europe, behind only Ireland.
France
A law originating from the 1789 revolution and reaffirmed in the 1958 French Constitution makes it illegal for the French state to collect data on ethnicity and ancestry. In 2008, the TeO ("Trajectories and origins") poll conducted jointly by INED and the French National Institute of Statistics estimated that 5 million people were of Italian ancestry (the largest immigrant community), followed by 3 million to 6 million people of Northwest African ancestry, 2.5 million people of Sub-Saharan African origin, and 200,000 people of Turkish ancestry. There are over 500,000 ethnic Armenians in France. There are also sizeable minorities of other European ethnic groups, namely Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, and Greek.
Islam in France
According to , a researcher at INED, an acceptance of 5 to 6 million Muslims in France in 1999 was overestimated. Her work has shown that there were 3.7 million people of "possible Muslim faith" in France in 1999 (6.3% of the total population of Metropolitan France). These 3.7 million people whose ancestry is from countries where Islam is the dominant faith may or may not be observant Muslims themselves. In 2009, she estimated that the number of people of "possible Muslim faith" in France was about 4.5 million.
History of France
The Early Modern period in French history spans the following reigns, from 1461 to the Revolution, breaking in 1789:France in the Ancien Régime covered a territory of around . This land supported 13 million people in 1484 and 20 million people in 1700. France had the second largest population in Europe around 1700. Britain had 5 or 6 million, Spain had 8 million, and the Austrian Habsburgs had around 8 million. Russia was the most populated European country at the time. France's lead slowly faded after 1700, as other countries grew faster.
Immigration to France
According to Michel Tribalat, a researcher at INED, there were 3.5 million people of Maghrebi origin (with at least one grandparent from Algeria, Morocco or Tunisia) living in France in 2005 corresponding to 5.8% of the total French metropolitan population (60.7 millions in 2005). Maghrebis have settled mainly in the industrial regions in France, especially in the Paris region. Many famous French people like Edith Piaf, Isabelle Adjani, Arnaud Montebourg, Alain Bashung, Dany Boon, Zinedine Zidane and Karim Benzema have Maghrebi ancestry.
Immigration to France
The table shows immigrants and 2nd generation immigrants by origin in 2008. 3rd generation immigrants, illegal immigrants, as well as ethnic minorities like Black people from the French overseas territories residing in metropolitan France (800,000), Roms (500,000) or people born in Maghreb with French citizenship at birth (about 4 million Maghrebi Jews, Harkis and Pied-Noir including their descendants live in France) were not taken into account.
French Resistance
The question of how many were active in the Resistance has been raised. While stressing that the issue was sensitive and approximate, François Marcot, a professor of history at the Sorbonne, ventured an estimate of 200,000 activists and a further 300,000 with substantial involvement in Resistance operations. Historian Robert Paxton estimated the number of active resisters at "about 2% of the adult French population (or about 400,000)", and went on to observe that "there were, no doubt, wider complicities, but even if one adds those willing to read underground newspapers, only some two million persons, or around 10% of the adult population", had been willing to risk any involvement at all. The post-war government of France officially recognised 220,000 men and women.
Cantons of France
As of 2015, there are 2,054 cantons in France.
Most of them group together some communes (the lowest administrative division of the French Republic), although larger communes may comprise several cantons, since the cantons are intended to be roughly equal in population – unlike the communes, which range from more than two million inhabitants (Paris) to just one person (Rochefourchat).
Hinduism in France
The Hindu community in France consists of some long-time residents and many recent immigrants. Although Hinduism does not constitute a large proportion of the population it appears to be growing rapidly; the current Hindu population of France is 121,312 or 0.2% of the nation's population, up from an estimated 50,000 in 1993.
Religion in France
In 2016, 0.8% of the total population of France, or about 535.000 people, were religious Jews. There has been a Jewish presence in France since at least the early Middle Ages. France was a center of Jewish learning in the Middle Ages, but persecution increased as the Middle Ages wore on, including multiple expulsions and returns. During the late 18th-century French Revolution, France was the first country in Europe to emancipate its Jewish population. Antisemitism persisted despite legal equality, as expressed in the Dreyfus affair of the late 19th century.
Economy of France
In 2010, the French had an estimated wealth of US$14.0 trillion for a population of 63 million.France has the third highest number of millionaires in Europe as of 2017. There were 1.617 million millionaire households (measured in terms of US dollars) living in France in 2017, behind the UK (2.225M) and Germany (1.637).
Immigration to France
In 2014 The National Institute of Statistics (INSEE, for its acronym in French) published a study, accordingly the number of Spanish immigrants, Portuguese and Italians in France between 2009 and 2012 has doubled.
As determined by the French Institute, this increase resulting from the financial crisis that hit several European countries in that period, has pushed up the number of Europeans settled in France.
Statistics on Spanish immigrants in France show a growth of 107 percent between 2009 and 2012, i.e. in this period went from 5300 to 11,000 people.
Of the total of 229,000 new foreigners coming to France in 2012, nearly 8% were Portuguese, British 5%, Spanish 5%, Italians 4%, Germans 4%, Romanians 3%, and Belgians 3%.
European Union statistics
As of 1 January 2006, the population of the EU was about 493 million people. Many countries are expected to experience a decline in population over the coming decades, though this could be offset with new countries planning to join the EU within the next 20 years. The most populous member state is Germany, with an estimated 80.4 million people. France and Ireland have the highest birth-rates. The most densely populated country is the island of Malta, which is also the smallest, while the largest in area is France. The least densely populated country is Finland.
Demographics of Paris
Anch National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies, responsible for the production and analysis of official statistics in France, 20 per cent of people living in the city of Paris are immigrants and 41.3 per cent of people under 20 have at least one immigrant parent. Among the young people under 18, 12.1 per cent are of Maghrebi origin, 9.9 per cent of Subsaharan African origin and 4.0 per cent of South European origin. About four million people, or 35 per cent of the population of the Île-de-France, are either immigrants (17 per cent) or have at least one immigrant parent (18 per cent).
Demographics of France
France has been influenced by the different human migrations that occurred throughout Europe over time. Prehistoric and Neolithic population movements could have influenced the genetic diversity of this country. A recent study in 2009 analysed 555 French individuals from 7 different regions in mainland France and found the following Y-DNA Haplogroups. The five main haplogroups are R1 (63.41%), E (11.41%), I (8.88%), J (7.97%) and G (5.16%). R1b (particularly R1b1b2) was found to be the most dominant Y chromosomal lineage in France, covering about 60% of the Y chromosomal lineages. The high frequency of this haplogroup is typical in all West European populations. Haplogroups I and G are also characteristic markers for many different West European populations. Haplogroups J and E1b1b (M35, M78, M81 and M34) consist of lineages with differential distribution within Middle East, North Africa and Europe. Only adults with French surnames were analyzed by the study.
French people
There are nearly seven million French speakers out of nine to ten million people of French and partial French ancestry in Canada. The Canadian province of Quebec (2006 census population of 7,546,131), where more than 95 percent of the people speak French as either their first, second or even third language, is the center of French life on the Western side of the Atlantic; however, French settlement began further east, in Acadia. Quebec is home to vibrant French-language arts, media, and learning. There are sizable French-Canadian communities scattered throughout the other provinces of Canada, particularly in Ontario, which has about 1 million people with French ancestry (400 000 who have French as their mother tongue), Manitoba, and New Brunswick, which is the only fully bilingual province and is 33 percent Acadian.
France
According to a survey held in 2016 by Institut Montaigne and Institut français d'opinion publique (IFOP), 51.1% of the total population of France was Christian as of that year; at the same time 39.6% of the population had no religion (atheism or agnosticism), 5.6% were Muslims, 2.5% were followers of other faiths, and the remaining 0.4% were undecided about their faith. Estimates of the number of Muslims in France vary widely. In 2003, the French Ministry of the Interior estimated the total number of people of Muslim background to be between 5 and 6 million (8–10%). The current Jewish community in France (, about 0.8% of the population are religious Jews) is the largest in Europe and the third-largest in the world, after those in Israel and the United States.
Catholicism has been the predominant religion in France for more than a millennium, though it is not as actively practised today as it was. Among the 47,000 religious buildings in France, 94% are Roman Catholic. During the French Revolution, activists conducted a brutal campaign of de-Christianisation, ending the Catholic Church as the state religion. In some cases clergy and churches were attacked, with iconoclasm stripping the churches of statues and ornament. After the back and forth of Catholic royal and secular republican governments during the 19th century, France established "laïcité" by passage of the 1905 law on the Separation of the Churches and the State.
French people
According to a study by Ancestry.co.uk, 3 million British people are of French descent. Among those are television presenters Davina McCall and Louis Theroux. There are currently an estimated 400,000 French people in the United Kingdom, most of them in London.
France
France (), officially the French Republic (, ), is a country whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany to the northeast, Switzerland and Italy to the east, and Andorra and Spain to the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The country's 18 integral regions (five of which are situated overseas) span a combined area of and a total population of 67.3 million (). France, a sovereign state, is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille and Nice.
Île-de-France
In 2013, 2 206 000 residents of the Île-de-France were immigrants, born outside of France. This amounts to 18,5 % of the population of the region, two times more than the proportion for metropolitan France as a whole. Four out of ten immigrants living in France reside in the Paris Region. The immigrant population of the Paris region has a higher proportion of those born outside of Europe, and a higher proportion of immigrants with a higher education, than the rest of France. The population of immigrants is more widely distributed throughout the region than it was in the early 2000s, though the concentrations remain high in certain areas, particularly Paris and the department of Seine-Saint-Denis. The proportion of residents born outside of Metropolitan France has dropped since the 1999 census (19.7 percent) and the 2010 census (23 percent). .
History of France
France remained basically Catholic. The 1872 census counted 36 million people, of whom 35.4 million were listed as Catholics, 600,000 as Protestants, 50,000 as Jews and 80,000 as freethinkers. The Revolution failed to destroy the Catholic Church, and Napoleon's concordat of 1801 restored its status. The return of the Bourbons in 1814 brought back many rich nobles and landowners who supported the Church, seeing it as a bastion of conservatism and monarchism. However the monasteries with their vast land holdings and political power were gone; much of the land had been sold to urban entrepreneurs who lacked historic connections to the land and the peasants.
Poverty in France
In 1974, the National Assembly’s Commission on Cultural, Family and Social Affairs estimated that 5% of the population should be considered as “living in a state of destitution or on the borderline of destitution”. Studies by Serge Milano, Lionel Stoleru, and Rene Lenoir estimated that between 10% and 14% of the population lived in poverty from 1970 to 1980. A report by the EEC estimated that 14.8% of households in France lived in poverty in 1975, defined as living below the threshold of 50% mean annual income. In 1987, it was estimated that 2 million people in France lived in extreme poverty.
Rugby union in France
France is the world's most populous country in which rugby union has a large and dedicated following, with over 65 million people. It is more than the populations of other popular rugby nations such as New Zealand, Australia, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales combined.
Islam in France
In 2008, the French national institute of statistics, INSEE, estimated that 11.8 million foreign-born immigrants and their direct descendants (born in France) lived in France representing 19% of the country's population. About 4 million of them are of Maghrebi origin.
France
It is estimated that between 300 million and 500 million people worldwide can speak French, either as a mother tongue or a second language.
Demographics of France
Since the 19th century, France has continued being a country of immigration. During the "Trente Glorieuses" (1945–1974), the country's reconstruction and steady economic growth led to the labor-immigration of the 1960s, when many employers found manpower in villages located in Southern Europe and North Africa. In 2008, the French national institute of statistics INSEE estimated that 11.8 million foreign-born immigrants and their direct descendants (second generation) lived in France representing 19% of the country's population. About 5.5 million are of European origin and 4 million of Maghrebi origin.
Geographical distribution of French speakers
According to a 2014 estimate by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, 274 million people worldwide can speak French, of which 212 million use the language daily, while the remaining 62 million have learnt it as a foreign language. Despite a decline in the number of learners of French in Europe, the overall number of speakers is rising, largely because of its presence in high-fertility African countries: of the 212 million who use French daily, 54.7% are living in Africa.
Paris
The remaining group, people born in foreign countries with no French citizenship at birth, are those defined as immigrants under French law. According to the 2012 census, 135,853 residents of the city of Paris were immigrants from Europe, 112,369 were immigrants from the Maghreb, 70,852 from sub-Saharan Africa and Egypt, 5,059 from Turkey, 91,297 from Asia (outside Turkey), 38,858 from the Americas, and 1,365 from the South Pacific. Note that the immigrants from the Americas and the South Pacific in Paris are vastly outnumbered by migrants from French overseas regions and territories located in these regions of the world.
French nationality law
Since the middle of the 19th century, France has exhibited a very high rate of immigration, mainly from Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, the Maghreb, Africa and Asia. According to a 2004 report by INED researcher Michèle Tribalat France has approximately 14 million persons (out of nearly 63 million, or approximately 22%) (see demographics of France) of foreign ascendancy (immigrants or with at least one parent or grandparent immigrant).
Demographics of Paris
By law, French censuses do not ask questions regarding ethnicity or religion, but do gather information concerning one's country of birth. From this it is still possible to determine that Paris and its metropolitan area is one of the most multi-cultural in Europe: According to the 2011 census, 456,105 residents of the municipality of Paris, or 20.3 percent, and 2,117,901 residents of the Paris Region (Île-de-France), or 17.9 percent, were born outside France. At the 1999 census, 4.2% of the population in Paris metropolitan area were recent immigrants (people who had immigrated to France between 1990 and 1999), the majority from Asia and Africa. 37 per cent of all immigrants in France live in the Paris region.
Vietnamese people in France
The Vietnamese people in France (, ) consists of people of Vietnamese ancestry who were born in or immigrated to France. Their population was over 300,000 as of 2014.
France
According to the 2007 Adult Education survey, part of a project by the European Union and carried in France by the Insee and based on a sample of 15,350 persons, French was the first mother tongue of 87.2% of the total population, or roughly 55.81 million people, followed by Arabic (3.6%, 2.30 million), Portuguese (1.5%, 0.96 million), Spanish (1.2%, 0.77 million) and Italian (1.0%, 0.64 million). People who had other languages as their mother tongue made up the 5.2% of the population.
Asian French
The population of ethnic Khmers in France as of 2011 is estimated to be about 80,000, making the community one of the largest in the Cambodian diaspora. The Cambodian population in France has had a presence in the country dating to well before the Vietnam War and subsequent Indochina refugee crisis, unlike counterpart communities in North America and Australia.
Demographics of France
On 18 January 2008, the government published a list of 150 job titles that were encountering difficult supply of labour. Most immigrants living in France today are reported to cover the following sectors: agriculture, service to persons in need (childcare, the elderly), construction, education, health and services to businesses. Thus, the government is seeking to match immigrants with the economic makeup of France. The current administration could also seek to integrate migrants and their families through education and training, making them more competitive in the job market. To tackle critical labour shortages, France also decided to participate in the EU Blue Card.
Economic history of Europe
Before 1800, France was the most populated country in Europe, with a population of 17 million in 1400, 20 million in the 17th century, and 28 million in 1789. The 17th and 18th centuries saw a steady increase in urban populations, although France remained a profoundly rural country, with less than 10% of the population located in urban areas. Paris was the largest city in Europe, in 1754, with 650,000 people by the end of the 18th century.
French Argentines
As of 2010, almost 15,000 French citizens are living in Argentina, the community may be higher though.
Americans in France
Americans in France consists of immigrants and expatriates from the United States as well as French people of American ancestry. Immigration to France from the United States date back to the 19th century and according to the American embassy in Paris, as of 2010, there are about 100,000 American citizens residing in France.
France in the twentieth century
Unlike other European countries France did not experience a strong population growth in the mid and late 19th century and first half of the 20th century. This would be compounded by the massive French losses of World War I — roughly estimated at 1.4 million French dead including civilians (or nearly 10% of the active adult male population) and four times as many wounded — and World War II — estimated at 593,000 French dead (one and a half times the number of American dead), of which 470,000 were civilians. From a population of around 39 million in 1880, France still had only a population of 40 million in 1945. The post-war years would bring a massive "baby boom", and with immigration, France reached 50 million in 1968. This growth slowed down in 1974.
Demographics of France
Christian (overwhelmingly Roman Catholic) 63-66%, Muslim 7-9%, Buddhist 0.5-0.75%, Jewish 0.5-0.75%, other 0.5-1.0%, none 23-28%
Note: France maintains a tradition of secularism and has not officially collected data on religious affiliation since the 1872 national census, which complicates assessments of France's religious composition; an 1872 law prohibiting state authorities from collecting data on individuals' ethnicity or religious beliefs was reaffirmed by a 1978 law emphasizing the prohibition of the collection or exploitation of personal data revealing an individual's race, ethnicity, or political, philosophical, or religious opinions (2015 est.)
The population of France is predicted to hit the 70 million mark between the year 2025/2030 and to overtake Germany's between 2050/2060, with 75.6 million French for 71 million Germans in 2060, while the UK is predicted to overtake France by 2030. By 2080, the population of France is estimated to reach 78.8 million (including the overseas departments, but not the overseas territories).
Immigration to France
In 2008, according to The National Institute of Statistics (INSEE, for its acronym in French), there were 12 million immigrants and their direct descendants (2nd generation) making up about 20% of the population. with an immigrant defined as a foreign born person without French citizenship at birth. Without considering citizenship at birth, people not born in metropolitan France and their direct descendants made up 30% of the population aged 18–50 in metropolitan France in 2008.
Immigration to France
According to other sources between 5 and 6 million people of Maghrebi origin live in France corresponding to about 7-9% of the total French metropolitan population.
Cape Verdeans in France
In 1995, it was estimated that there were 8,000 Cape Verdeans in France. The 1999 census counted 21,000 descendants. In 2007, the embassy in Paris had 17,544 registered Cape Verdeans. However, that number only includes those who are documented and registered. There are many who are undocumented or who choose not to register with the embassy. Additionally, tabulating is difficult because many Cape Verdeans arrived in France with passports from other host countries, like Portugal or the Netherlands. Thus, taking all these factors into consideration, the embassy estimates that there are about 25,000 Cape Verdeans and their descendants currently residing in France.
Immigration to France
In 2008, there were 5.3 million immigrants corresponding to 8.5% of the total population in France (63.9 million in 2008). 42% were from Africa (30% from Maghreb and 12% from Sub-Saharan Africa), 38% from Europe (mainly from Portugal, Italy and Spain), 14% from Asia and 5% from the Americas and Oceania. Of this total, 40% have assumed French citizenship. In addition, 1.8 million people born in foreign countries (including 1 million in Maghreb) with French citizenship at birth were not included in this total.
Demographics of France
According to other sources, between 5 and 6 million people of Maghrebin origin live in France corresponding to about 7–9% of the total French metropolitan population.
Antisemitism in 21st-century France
Antisemitism in France has become heightened since the late 20th century and into the 21st century. In the early 21st century, most Jews in France, like most Muslims in France, are of North African origin. France has the largest population of Jews in the diaspora after the United States—an estimated 500,000–600,000 persons. Paris has the highest population, followed by Marseilles, which has 70,000 Jews, most of North African origin.
French Americans
According to the U.S. Census Bureau of 2000, 5.3 percent of Americans are of French or French Canadian ancestry. In 2013 the number of people living in the US who were born in France was estimated at 129,520. French Americans made up close to, or more than, 10 percent of the population of seven states, six in New England and Louisiana. Population wise, California has the greatest Franco population followed by Louisiana, while Maine has the highest by percentage (25 percent).
Île-de-France
Île-de-France (; , literally "Island of France"), often called the "région parisienne" ("Paris Region"), contains the city of Paris, and is the most populous of the 18 regions of France. It covers , or two percent of the national territory, and has official estimated population of 12,213,364 as of January 1, 2019, or 18.2% of the population of France. The region accounts for nearly 30 percent of the French Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
French people
In Asia, a proportion of people with mixed French and Vietnamese descent can be found in Vietnam. Including the number of persons of pure French descent. Many are descendants of French settlers who intermarried with local Vietnamese people. Approximately 5,000 in Vietnam are of pure French descent, however, this number is disputed.
A small proportion of people with mixed French and Khmer descent can be found in Cambodia. These people number approximately 16,000 in Cambodia, among this number, approximately 3,000 are of pure French descent.
An unknown number with mixed French and Lao ancestry can be found throughout Laos.
A few thousand French citizens of Indian, European or creole ethnic origins live in the former French possessions in India (mostly Pondicherry).
In addition to these Countries, small minorities can be found elsewhere in Asia; the majority of these living as expatriates.
Apart from Québécois, Acadians, Cajuns, and Métis, other populations with some French ancestry outside metropolitan France include the "Caldoches" of New Caledonia, Louisiana Creole people of the United States, the so-called "Zoreilles" and "Petits-blancs" of various Indian Ocean islands, as well as populations of the former French colonial empire in Africa and the West Indies.
Communes of France
Thus, in Europe, only Switzerland has as high a density of communes as France, and even there an extensive merger movement has started in the last 10 years. To better grasp the staggering number of communes in France, two comparisons can be made: First, of the original 15 member states of the European Union there are approximately 75,000 communes; France alone, which comprises 16 percent of the population of the EU-15, had nearly half of its communes. Second, the United States, with a territory fourteen times larger than that of the French Republic, and nearly five times its population, had 35,937 incorporated municipalities and townships at the 2002 Census of Governments, fewer than that of the French Republic.
France
With an estimated total population of 67.15 million people , with 65 million in metropolitan France, France is the 20th most populous country in the world and the third-most populous in Europe. France is also second most populous country in the European Union after Germany.
History of the Jews in France
France has the largest Jewish population in Europe and the third largest Jewish population in the world (after Israel and the United States). The Jewish community in France is estimated from a core population of 480,000-500,000 to an enlarged population of 600,000.
Hauts-de-France
With 6,009,976 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2015), and a population of 189 inhabitants/km2, it represents the 3rd most populous region in France and the 2nd most densely populated in metropolitan France after Île-de-France.
Communauté de communes
On January 1, 2007, there were 2,400 "communautés de communes" in France (2,391 in metropolitan France and 9 in the overseas "départements"), with 26.48 million people living in them. Since then, many communautés de communes have been merged or have joined a communauté d'agglomération, a communauté urbaine or a métropole. While there were 2,408 communautés de communes in January 2010 and 1,842 in January 2016, there were only 1,009 communautés de communes left on 1 April 2018. The population of the "communautés de communes" (2015 population data, 2018 borders) ranged from 104,039 inhabitants (Communauté de communes Le Grésivaudan, gathering the area between Grenoble and Chambéry) to 3,931 inhabitants (Communauté de communes du Causse de Labastide-Murat, Lot "département").
Demographics of France
Americans total more than 100,000 permanent residents in France, Canadians 11,931, followed by Latin Americans, are a growing subgroup, the most numerous of which are Brazilians, at 44,622; followed by Colombians, at 40,000, Venezuelans, at 30,000; Peruvians, at 22,002; Argentineans, at 11,899; and Chileans, 15,782.
Poverty in France
In the mid-Sixties, Jules Klanfer estimated that about 20% of the French population lived in poverty. Lionel Stoleru, in “The fight against poverty in the rich countries,” estimated that 20% of the population lived in poverty in the early Seventies, while Rene Lenior in “The Outsiders” put the figure at 15 %. An OECD study from the early Seventies estimated that 16% of the French population lived in poverty, compared with 13% in the United States, 11% in Canada, 7.5% in the United Kingdom, and 3% in Germany. Other national estimates at the time were 13% (the United States), 11% (Canada), 8% (Australia), 5% (Norway), and 3.5% (Sweden).
Irish people in mainland Europe
30,000 Irish live in France, including more than 15,000 in Paris. More than 700,000 enjoy France's Irish Music, Irish Cultural and Irish Sport scene. With Brittany and the Breton culture matched closely to the Irish & Celtic cultures, you can join Irish Societies and Associations, Study Irish & Celtic Courses from Brittany to the French Riviera. The Irish College in Paris, which once was home to Karol Wojtyla, later Pope John Paul II, is now an Irish cultural centre. It hosts Irish events, such as lectures, book-launches, exhibitions and performances by Ireland's authors, musicians and artists.
Education in France
The French Republic has 67 million inhabitants, living in the 13 regions of metropolitan France and four overseas departments (2.7 million). Despite the fact that the population is growing (up 0.4% a year), the proportion of young people under 25 is falling. There are now fewer than 19 million young people in metropolitan France, or 32% of the total population, compared with 40% in the 1970s and 35% at the time of the 1990 census. France is seeing a slow aging of the population—less marked however than in other neighbouring countries (such as Germany and Italy), especially as the annual number of births is currently increasing slightly.
List of places named after Pierre Brossolette
Suburban rings of metropolitan areas account for a population of 12.2M (19% of the overall French population)City/town urban areas account for a population of 5.0M (8% of the overall French population)Multi-centered counties cover a population of 6.9M (10% of the overall French population). 
These generic urban areas correspond to 30% of the overall French counties."Obs.: The area accounting for the remaining 5% (3.1M) of the French population (and 20% of French counties) is constituted by counties deemed isolated from any urban influence, corresponding to the deprecated definition of rural areas though still defined as non-urban. The featured county count for this area is 9 (out of 7 414)."
Count: 76
Berbers in France
Berbers in France are people of Berber descent living in France. Berbers in France, who generally call themselves Amazigh and not Berbers, are estimated to number over 2 million people.
France in the twentieth century
France experienced a baby boom after 1945; it reversed a long-term record of low birth rates. In addition, there was a steady immigration, especially from former French colonies in North Africa. The population grew from 41 million in 1946, to 50 million in 1966, and 60 million by 1990. The farm population decline sharply, from 35% of the workforce in 1945 to under 5% by 2000. By 2004, France had the second highest birthrate in Europe, behind only Ireland.
Population without double counting
The population figures of France depend on the definition of "French". INSEE, the French national statistics bureau has two definitions:
France
France is an outlier among developed countries in general, and European countries in particular, in having a fairly high rate of natural population growth: by birth rates alone, France was responsible for almost all natural population growth in the European Union in 2006, with the natural growth rate (excess of births over deaths) rising to 300,000 and with the immigration the population grew with almost 400,000 people, although in the late 2010s it fell to 200,000. This was the highest rate since the end of the baby boom in 1973, and coincides with the rise of the total fertility rate from a nadir of 1.7 in 1994 to 2.0 in 2010. the fertility rate was 1.93.
2010 redistricting of French legislative constituencies
Since the last redistricting effort in 1986, 577 constituencies of the National Assembly of France have been distributed among the Departments of France. In France, constituencies are divided in proportion to their population, based on 1986 census figures, each consisted of 108,000 inhabitants. In theory, the number of total constituencies located within a département is supposed to be proportional to the larger population within that département compared to the total population of France. (In total, there are 101 départements, which are grouped into 22 metropolitan and five overseas regions.) However, using French Republican tradition, each département must have at least two constituencies regardless of population. This, however, distorts the proportionality of national representation, with 23 départements being under-represented (including 5 of "two deputies" départements) and 28 départements over-represented. Effectively, 51 out of 101 départements were poorly represented based on the results of the most recent census.
Demographics of France
Below is a table of population of Maghrebi origin in France, numbers are in thousands:
France in the twentieth century
Immigration in the 20th century differed significantly from that of the previous century. The 1920s saw great influxes from Italy and Poland; in the 1930-50s immigrants came from Spain and Portugal. Since the 1960s however, the greatest waves of immigrants have been from former French colonies: Algeria (1 million), Morocco (570,000), Tunisia (200,000), Senegal (45,000), Mali (40,000), Cambodia (45,000), Laos (30,000), Vietnam (35,000). Much of this recent immigration was initially economical, but many of these immigrants have remained in France, gained citizenship and integrated into French society. Estimates vary, but of the 60 million people living in France today, close to 4 million claim foreign origin. This massive influx has created tensions in contemporary France, especially over issues of "integration into French society" and the notion of a "French identity", and in recent years the most controversial issues have been with regards to Muslim populations (at 7%, Islam is the second largest religion in today's France; see Islam in France).
French language
The majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to the 2007 report by the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 Francophone countries can speak French as either a first or a second language. This number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050. French is the fastest growing language on the continent (in terms of either official or foreign languages).
France in the twentieth century
Around the start of the 20th century, almost half of all Frenchmen depended on the land for their living, and up until World War II, France remained a largely rural country (roughly 25% of the population worked on the land in 1950), but the post-war years also saw an unprecedented move to the cities: only around 4% of the French continue to work in farms and 73% live today in large cities. By far the largest of these is Paris, at 2.1 million inhabitants (11 million in the Parisian region), followed by Lille, Lyon, Marseille (upwards of 1.2 million inhabitants each). Much of this urbanization takes place not in the traditional center of the cities, but in the suburbs (or "banlieues") that surround them (the cement and steel housing projects in these areas are called "cités"). With immigration from poorer countries, these "cités" have been the center of racial and class tensions since the 1960s.
France–Italy relations
Nowadays 340,000 Italian nationals live in France, while 130,000 French citizens live in Italy. In the French Departement of Alpes-Maritimes at least 80% of the population can trace some ancestry back to Italy and 40% can claim it as solely Italian and Italian is the mother language of 30% of the population.
Paris
The official estimated population of the city of Paris was 2,206,488 as of January 1, 2019, according to INSEE, the official French statistical agency. This is a decline of 59,648 from 2015, close to the total population of the 5th arrondissement. Despite the drop, Paris remains the most densely-populated city in Europe, with 252 residents per hectare, not counting parks. This drop was attributed partly to a lower birth rate, to the departure of middle-class residents. and partly to the possible loss of housing in the city due to short-term rentals for tourism.
Paris is the core of a built-up area that extends well beyond its limits: commonly referred to as the "agglomération Parisienne", and statistically as a "unité urbaine" (a measure of urban area), the Paris agglomeration's 2013 population of 10,601,122 made it the largest urban area in the European Union. City-influenced commuter activity reaches well beyond even this in a statistical "aire urbaine" de Paris (a measure of metropolitan area), that had a 2013 population of 12,405,426, a number one-fifth the population of France, the largest metropolitan area in the Eurozone.
Demographics of France
In the early 21st century there were an estimated 5 million Muslims in France, one million Protestants, 600,000 Buddhists, 491,000 Jews, and 150,000 Orthodox Christians. The US State Department's "International Religious Freedom Report 2004". estimated the French Hindu population at 181,312. These studies did not ask the respondents if they were practicing or how often they did practice if they were active in the laity.
Islam in France
In 2017, François Héran, former Head of the Population Surveys Branch at INSEE and Director of INED (French National Institute for Demographic Research) between 1999 and 2009, stated that about one eighth of the French population was of Muslim origin in 2017 (8.4 million).
Ageing of Europe
France overtook Ireland as the European Union member state with the highest birth-rate in 2007. Projected birth rates indicate that France will have the largest population in the EU by 2050, with 75 million citizens, overtaking Germany, but only the second largest in Europe, with the UK having a larger estimated population. In 2011, France was the only European Union member with a fertility rate at replacement level, with an average rate of 2.08 children per woman while Ireland's fertility rate declined to 2.01 children per woman, slightly below replacement level. This reason for an increase in children are due to the government family benefits that are provided to these families. They receive an allowance based off income and how many children they have in that household.
France–Spain relations
A Eurostat publication estimated that 122,385 French citizens live in Spain and 128,000 Spanish citizens live in France, while it is also estimated that 144,039 people in France were born in Spain. The Spanish Civil War and hardship immediately after spurred Spanish migration to the more developed and democratic France, which had a labour shortage in the aftermath of the Second World War. The Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, resident in the French capital Paris since 1901, was refused naturalisation shortly after Franco took control of Spain, but remained in Paris until his death in 1973.
French people
French law made it easy for thousands of settlers ("colons" in French), national French from former colonies of North and East Africa, India and Indochina to live in mainland France. It is estimated that 20,000 settlers were living in Saigon in 1945, and there were 68,430 European settlers living in Madagascar in 1958. 1.6 million European "pieds noirs" settlers migrated from Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. In just a few months in 1962, 900,000 pied noir settlers left Algeria in the most massive relocation of population in Europe since the World War II. In the 1970s, over 30,000 French settlers left Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime as the Pol Pot government confiscated their farms and land properties.
Communes of France
In metropolitan France just over 50 percent (57 percent) of the 36,569 communes have fewer than 500 inhabitants and, with 4,638,000 inhabitants, these smaller communes constitute just under 8 percent (7.7 percent) of the total population. In other words, just 8 percent of the French population live in 57 percent of its communes, whilst 92 percent are concentrated in the remaining 43 percent.
Immigration to France
In France, the three largest cities (Paris, Lyon and Marseille) also attract the largest share of immigrants to the country. According to a study of the INSEE, in France, Immigrants are more concentrated in urban areas than the native population. 90.1% of the immigrant population is located in urban areas which is significantly more than the proportion for the native population, 81.9% of them living in urban areas. In 2012, 38.2% of the total immigrant population lived in the Parisian urban area compared to 4.1% and 3.1% respectively for Lyon and Marseille.
French people in Lebanon
French people in Lebanon (or French Lebanese) are the French citizens (about 21,000 persons) living in Lebanon, including many binationals and persons from mixed ancestry. There are neither official statistics or any scientific information regarding their spoken languages and supposed religious affiliations.
Immigration to France
Children born in France to foreign parents are automatically granted French citizenship upon reaching the age of 18. People born abroad and living in France can acquire French citizenship if they satisfy certain conditions. In 2009 the number of naturalised persons was 135,000, mainly from Maghreb (41.2%).
Asian French
Chinese form the largest Asian group in France, with a population of roughly 600,000 as of 2010.
List of French supercentenarians
French supercentenarians are citizens, residents or emigrants from France who have attained or surpassed 110 years of age. , the Gerontology Research Group (GRG) had validated the longevity claims of 161 French supercentenarians. The oldest French person currently alive is Lucile Randon, born 11 February 1904, aged . France was also home to the oldest human being ever whose longevity was well documented, Jeanne Calment, who lived in Arles and remembered meeting Vincent Van Gogh when she was a teenager. She was born on 21 February 1875, and died on 4 August 1997, aged 122 years and 164 days. Nevertheless, a November 2018 study advanced the hypothesis that Calment's daughter Yvonne usurped her identity in 1934; Yvonne was born on 19 January 1898, which would have made her 99 years old upon her death in 1997. The verified oldest French man ever was Maurice Floquet, a veteran of World War I who lived 111 years and 320 days across three centuries (1894–2006).
Maghrebis
According to Michel Tribalat, a researcher at INED, there were more than 4.6 million people of Maghrebi origin (with at least one Maghrebi grandparent from Algeria, Morocco or Tunisia) living in France in 2011 (3 millions in 1999). Below is a table of population of Maghrebi origin in France in 2011, numbers are in thousands:
Note : for 2nd generation born in France only individuals under 60 are taken into account.
Immigration to France
According to the French national institute of statistics INSEE, the 2014 census counted nearly 6 million immigrants (foreign-born people) in France, representing 9.1% of the total population. Eurostat estimated the foreign-born population to be 7.9 million, corresponding to 11.8% of the French population as of January 2016.
Communauté urbaine
As of April 2018, there are 11 communautés urbaines in France (all in metropolitan France), with a combined population of 2.43 million inhabitants (as of 2015, in 2018 limits). All of the urban areas in France with more than half a million inhabitants are a communauté urbaine or a métropole. Some communautés urbaines are relatively small; smaller than many communautés d'agglomération.