This article is about the
demographicDemographics or demographic data are selected population characteristics as used in government, marketing or opinion research, or the demographic profiles used in such research...
features of the
populationIn biology, a population is the collection of inter-breeding organisms of a particular species; in sociology, a collection of human beings. Individuals within a population share a factor may be reduced by statistical means, but such a generalization may be too vague to imply anything...
of
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
, including
population densityPopulation density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans. It is a key term used in geography....
,
ethnicityAn ethnic group is a group of humans whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage that is real or presumed.Ethnic identity is further marked by the researcher Seng Yang in the recognition from others of a group's distinctiveness and the recognition of common cultural,...
, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects.
As of January 1, 2009, 65,073,482 people live in the French Republic. 62,448,977 of these live in
metropolitan FranceMetropolitan France is the part of France located in Europe, including Corsica. It can also be described as mainland France or as the French mainland and the island of Corsica...
, whereas 2,624,505 live in the
French overseas departments and territoriesThe French Overseas Departments and Territories consist broadly of French-administered territories outside of the European continent...
.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, France's population was low compared to its neighbours, and due to its past history.
This article is about the
demographicDemographics or demographic data are selected population characteristics as used in government, marketing or opinion research, or the demographic profiles used in such research...
features of the
populationIn biology, a population is the collection of inter-breeding organisms of a particular species; in sociology, a collection of human beings. Individuals within a population share a factor may be reduced by statistical means, but such a generalization may be too vague to imply anything...
of
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
, including
population densityPopulation density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans. It is a key term used in geography....
,
ethnicityAn ethnic group is a group of humans whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage that is real or presumed.Ethnic identity is further marked by the researcher Seng Yang in the recognition from others of a group's distinctiveness and the recognition of common cultural,...
, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects.
As of January 1, 2009, 65,073,482 people live in the French Republic. 62,448,977 of these live in
metropolitan FranceMetropolitan France is the part of France located in Europe, including Corsica. It can also be described as mainland France or as the French mainland and the island of Corsica...
, whereas 2,624,505 live in the
French overseas departments and territoriesThe French Overseas Departments and Territories consist broadly of French-administered territories outside of the European continent...
.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, France's population was low compared to its neighbours, and due to its past history. However, the country's population sharply increased with the
baby boomThe end of World War II brought a baby boom to many countries, notably those in Europe, Asia, North America, and Australia. There is some disagreement as to the precise beginning and ending dates of the post-war baby boom, but it is most often agreed to begin in the years immediately after the war,...
following
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. During the
Trente GlorieusesLes Trente Glorieuses refers to the thirty years from 1945-1975 following the end of the Second World War in 1945 in France. The name was first used by the French demographer Jean Fourastié...
(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 EuropeThe term Southern Europe, at its most general definition, is used to mean "all countries in the south of Europe". However, the concept, at different times, has had different meanings, providing additional political, linguistic and cultural context to the definition in addition to the typical...
and in the
MaghrebThe Maghreb , also rendered Maghrib , meaning "place of sunset" or "western" in Arabic, is a region in North Africa. The term is generally applied to all of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, but in older Arabic usage pertained only to the area of the three countries between the high ranges of the...
(or
North AfricaNorth Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the UN definition of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia,Mauritania, and...
). French law facilitated the immigration of thousands of
colons, ethnic or national French from former colonies of North and
West AfricaWest Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries distributed over an area of approximately 5 million square km:*Benin...
,
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
and
IndochinaIndochina, or the Indochinese Peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly east of India, south of China.The word has French origins, Indochine, and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory to bordering countries.Historically, the countries of...
, to mainland France. 1.6 million European
pieds noirs migrated from
AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country on the Mediterranean sea, the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area.It is bordered by Tunisia in...
,
TunisiaTunisia , officially the Tunisian Republic , is a country located in North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and Libya to the southeast. Tunisia is located southwest of the island of Sicily and south of Sardinia. Its size is almost 165,000 km² with an estimated population of just...
and
MoroccoMorocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 32 million and an area just under . Its capital is Rabat, and its largest city is Casablanca. Morocco has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the...
. In the 1970s, over 30,000 French
colons left Cambodia during the
Khmer RougeThe Khmer Rouge was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, the totalitarian ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan....
regime as the
Pol PotSaloth Sar or Minh Hai, , widely known as Pol Pot, , was the leader of the Cambodian communist movement known as the Khmer Rouge and was Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea from 1976–1979....
government confiscated their farms and land properties. However, after the 1973 energy crisis, laws limiting immigration were passed. In addition, the country's birth rate dropped significantly during this time.
Since the 1980s, France has ceased being a country of mass immigration. Meanwhile, the national birth rate, after continuing to drop for a time, began to rebound in the 1990s and currently the country's fertility rate is close to the
replacement levelSub-replacement fertility is a total fertility rate that is not high enough to replace an area's population. In developed countries sub-replacement fertility is below approximately 2.1 children per woman's life time, but the threshold could be as high as 3.3 in some developing countries because...
. In recent years, immigrants have accounted for one quarter of the population growth - a lower proportion than in most other European countries. According to an
INSEEINSEE is the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies. It collects and publishes information on the French economy and society, carrying out the periodic national census. Located in Paris, it is the French branch of Eurostat, European Statistical System...
2006 study, "The natural increase is close to 300,000 persons, a level that has not been reached in more than thirty years. Net migration is estimated at 93,600 persons, slightly more than in 2005."
http://www.insee.fr/en/ffc/pop_age4.htm
Historical population of metropolitan FranceMetropolitan France is the part of France located in Europe, including Corsica. It can also be described as mainland France or as the French mainland and the island of Corsica...
Please note:
- figures are for metropolitan France
Metropolitan France is the part of France located in Europe, including Corsica. It can also be described as mainland France or as the French mainland and the island of Corsica...
only, excluding overseas departments and territoriesThe French Overseas Departments and Territories consist broadly of French-administered territories outside of the European continent...
, as well as former French colonies"French Colonies" is the name used by philatelists to refer to the postage stamps issued by France for use in the parts of the French colonial empire that did not have stamps of their own...
and protectorates. AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country on the Mediterranean sea, the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area.It is bordered by Tunisia in...
and its départements, although they were an integral part of metropolitan France until 1962, are not included in the figures.
- to make comparisons easier, figures provided below are for the territory of metropolitan France within the borders of 2004. This was the real territory of France from 1860 to 1871, and again since 1919. Figures before 1860 have been adjusted to include Savoie
Savoie is a French department located in the Rhône-Alpes region in the French Alps....
and NiceNice is a city in southern France located on the Mediterranean coast, between Marseille, France, and Genoa, Italy, with 347 060 inhabitants in the 2006 estimate...
, which only became part of France in 1860. Figures between 1795 and 1815 do not include the French départements in modern day Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy, although they were an integral part of France during that period. Figures between 1871 and 1919 have been adjusted to include AlsaceAlsace is the fourth-smallest of the 26 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the sixth-most densely populated region in France , with 222 inhabitants per km²...
and part of LorraineLorraine is a historical area in present-day northeast France. Some of the main cities are Metz, Nancy and Verdun.-Lotharingia:Lorraine was originally an independent kingdom. It was created in 843, when the Carolingian empire was divided between the three sons of Louis the Pious...
, which both were at the time part of the German Empire.
- figures before 1801 are modern estimates; figures from 1801 (included) onwards are based on the official French censuses.
| Year | Population | Year | Population | Year | Population |
|---|
| 50 BC |
2,500,000 |
1806 |
29,648,000 |
1896 |
40,158,000 |
| 1 |
5,500,000 |
1811 |
30,271,000 |
1901 |
40,681,000 |
| 120 |
7,200,000 |
1816 |
30,573,000 |
1906 |
41,067,000 |
| 400 |
5,500,000 |
1821 |
31,578,000 |
1911 |
41,415,000 |
| 850 |
7,000,000 |
1826 |
32,665,000 |
1921 |
39,108,000 |
| 1226 |
16,000,000 |
1831 |
33,595,000 |
1926 |
40,581,000 |
| 1345 |
20,200,000 |
1836 |
34,293,000 |
1931 |
41,524,000 |
| 1400 |
16,600,000 |
1841 |
34,912,000 |
1936 |
41,502,000 |
| 1457 |
19,700,000 |
1846 |
36,097,000 |
1946 |
40,506,639 |
| 1580 |
20,000,000 |
1851 |
36,472,000 |
1954 |
42,777,162 |
| 1594 |
18,500,000 |
1856 |
36,715,000 |
1962 |
46,519,997 |
| 1600 |
20,000,000 |
1861 |
37,386,000 |
1968 |
49,780,543 |
| 1670 |
18,000,000 |
1866 |
38,067,000 |
1975 |
52,655,864 |
| 1700 |
21,000,000 |
1872 |
37,653,000 |
1982 |
54,334,871 |
| 1715 |
19,200,000 |
1876 |
38,438,000 |
1990 |
56,615,155 |
| 1740 |
24,600,000 |
1881 |
39,239,000 |
1999 |
58,518,395 |
| 1792 |
28,000,000 |
1886 |
39,783,000 |
2006 |
61,399,541 |
| 1801 |
29,361,000 |
1891 |
39,946,000 |
2009 |
62,448,977 (*) |
(*) Note:
- 62,448,977 total without overseas departments and territories.
- 65,073,482 total with overseas departments and territories.
1800 to 20th century
Starting around 1800, the historical evolution of the population in France has been extremely atypical in the Western WorldThe Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term that can have multiple meanings depending on its context...
. Unlike the rest of EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
, France did not experience a strong population growth in the 19th century and first half of the 20th century. The birth rateCrude birth rate is the nativity or childbirths per 1,000 people per year.According to the United Nations' World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision Population Database, crude birth rate is the Number of births over a given period divided by the person-years lived by the population over that...
in France diminished much earlier than in the rest of Europe. Consequently, population growth was quite slow in the 19th century, and the nadir was reached in the first half of the 20th century when France, surrounded by the rapidly growing populations of GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
and the United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, experienced virtually zero growth. This, and the bloody losses in France's population due to the First World WarWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, may explain the sudden collapse of France in 1940 during the Second World WarWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. France was often perceived as a country facing irrecoverable decline. At the time, racist theories were quite popular, and the dramatic demographic decline of France was often attributed (particularly in NaziNazism, known officially in German as National Socialism , is the totalitarian ideology and practices of the Nazi Party or National Socialist German Workers’ Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.Nazism is often considered...
Germany, and also in some conservative circles in England and elsewhere) to the genetic characteristics of the "French race", a race destined to fail in the face of the Germanic and Anglo-SaxonThe British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, one of the Channel Islands, or of one of the British overseas territories, and their descendants. In a historical context, the term refers to the ancient Britons, the indigenous inhabitants of Great Britain south of the...
"races". In addition, the slow growth of France's population in the 19th century was reflected in the country's very low emigrationEmigration is the act of leaving one's native country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state, is termed migration. There are many reasons why...
rate. While millions of people from all other parts of Europe moved to the Americas, few French did so. Most people in the United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
of French extraction are descended from immigrants from French Canada, whose population was rapidly growing at this time.
To better understand the demographic decline of France, it should be noted that France was historically the largest nation of Europe. During the 17th century one fifth of Europe’s population was French (and more than one quarter during the Middle Ages). Between 1815 and 2000, if the population of France had grown at the same rate as the population of GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
during the same time period, France's population would be 110 million today -- and this does not take into account the fact that a large chunk of Germany's population growth was siphoned off by emigration to the Americas. If France's population had grown at the same rate as EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
(whose rate was also siphoned off by emigration to the Americas, Australia and New Zealand), France's population could be anywhere up to 150 million today. And if we start the comparison at the time of King Louis XIVLouis XIV , popularly known as the Sun King , was King of France and of Navarre His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days, and is the longest documented reign of any European monarch.Louis began personally governing France after the death...
(the Sun King), then France would in fact have the same population as the United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. While France had been very powerful in Europe at the time of Louis XIVLouis XIV , popularly known as the Sun King , was King of France and of Navarre His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days, and is the longest documented reign of any European monarch.Louis began personally governing France after the death...
or Napoleon, the demographic decline the country experienced after 1800 helped it to lose this advantage.
After World War II
After 1947 however, France suddenly underwent a demographic recovery that no one could have foreseen. In the 1930s the French government, alarmed by the decline of France's population, had passed laws to boost the birth rate, giving state benefits to families with children. Nonetheless, no one can quite satisfactorily explain this sudden and unexpected recovery in the demography of France, which was often portrayed as a "miracle" inside France. This demographic recovery was again atypical in the Western WorldThe Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term that can have multiple meanings depending on its context...
, in the sense that although the rest of the Western World experienced a baby boomThe end of World War II brought a baby boom to many countries, notably those in Europe, Asia, North America, and Australia. There is some disagreement as to the precise beginning and ending dates of the post-war baby boom, but it is most often agreed to begin in the years immediately after the war,...
immediately after the war, the baby boom in France was much stronger, and above all it lasted longer than in most other countries of the Western World (the United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
being one of the few exceptions). In the 1950s and 1960s France enjoyed a population growth of 1% a year, which is the highest growth in the history of France, not even matched in the best periods of the 18th or 19th centuries.
Since 1975, France's population growth rate has significantly diminished, but it still remains slightly faster than that of the rest of Europe, and much faster than it was at the end of the 19th century and during the first half of the 20th century. In the first decade of the third millennium, population growth in France is the fastest of Europe, matched only by IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
and the NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
. However, it is significantly slower than that of the United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, whose population trends have diverged from those of Europe since the 1970s.
The ranking below will help understand the past, present, and future weight of France's population in Europe and in the world:
(historical populations are counted in the 2004 borders)
- until 1795 metropolitan France was the most populous country of Europe, above even Russia
Russia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, and the third most populous country in the world, behind only ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
and IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
- between 1795 and 1866, metropolitan France was the second most populous country of Europe, behind Russia
Russia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, and the fourth most populous country in the world, behind ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
, and RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
- between 1866 and 1911, metropolitan France was the third most populous country of Europe, behind Russia
Russia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
- between 1911 and 1931, metropolitan France was the fourth most populous country of Europe, behind Russia
Russia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
, and the United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
- between 1931 and 1991, metropolitan France was the fifth most populous country of Europe, behind Russia
Russia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
, the United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, and ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
- between 1991 and 2000, metropolitan France recovered its rank as the fourth most populous country of Europe, behind Russia
Russia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
, and the United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
- since 2000, metropolitan France has recovered its rank as the third most populous country of Europe, behind Russia
Russia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
. Worldwide, France's ranking has fallen to twentieth most populous country.
- if current demographic trends continue (i.e. declining population in Germany, and slightly rising population in France), around 2050 metropolitan France could become again the second most populous country of Europe behind Russia
Russia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
.
Note that in above data, TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
is not regarded as a European country.
Before World War II
In the twentieth century, France experienced a high rate of immigrationImmigration is the arrival of new individuals into a habitat or population. It is a biological concept and is important in population ecology, differentiated from emigration and migration.-As a political term:...
from other countries. The immigration rate was particularly high during the 1920s and 1930s. France was the European country which suffered the most from World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, with respect to the size of its population, losing 1.4 million young men out of a total population of 40 million. France was also at the time the European country with the lowest fertility rate, which meant that the country had a very hard time recovering from the heavy losses of the war. France had to open its doors to immigration, which was the only way to prevent population decline between the two world wars.
At the time France was the only European country to permit mass immigration. The other major European powers, such as the UK or Germany, still had high fertility rates, so immigration was seen as unnecessary while it was also undesirable to the vast majority of their populations. ArmeniansArmenians in France are ethnic Armenians living within the modern republic of France. Like much of the Armenian Diaspora, most Armenians immigrated to France after the Armenian Genocide of 1915–1923. Others came later, fleeing conflicts in places like Lebanon, Syria...
immigrated to France after the Armenian GenocideThe Armenian Genocide , also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Calamity , was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
of 1915. The majority of immigrants in the 1920s and 1930s came from southern EuropeThe term Southern Europe, at its most general definition, is used to mean "all countries in the south of Europe". However, the concept, at different times, has had different meanings, providing additional political, linguistic and cultural context to the definition in addition to the typical...
: Greeks, Italians, YugoslavsYugoslavs Yugoslavs Yugoslavs (Serbo-Croatian, Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Slovene, Macedonian: Jugoslaveni/Jugosloveni/Jugoslovani,
[Latin script was used in Serbo-Croat, and Slovene languages. Identical spelling is used in the Serbian and Macedonian Cyrillic script (Serbian variant)...]
, Portuguese and Spaniards, but also Eastern EuropeansEastern Europe is a region lying in the Eastern part of Europe. The term is highly context-dependent and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
: Poles, Russians, Hungarians and Czechoslovaks; and Belgians (nationality, but composed of both French and FlemingThe Flemish people , the Flemings or the Flemish are the over six million people of Flanders, the northern region of the country Belgium — and the majority of all Belgians....
-DutchThe Dutch people are the dominant ethnic group of the Netherlands.Dutch people, or descendants of Dutch people, are also found in migrant communities world wide, notably in Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and the United States....
elements) and the first wave of colonial French subjects from AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
and AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.Asia is traditionally defined as part of the...
. By the end of the Spanish Civil WarThe Spanish Civil War was a major conflict that devastated Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939. It began after an attempted coup d'état by a group of Spanish Army generals against the government of the Second Spanish Republic, then under the leadership of president Manuel Azaña...
, some half-million Spanish Republican refugeeUnder the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is a person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of their nationality,...
s had crossed
the border into FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
. At this time, JudaismJudaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts...
was the second most populous religion in France, as it had been for centuries. However, this would soon change .
Local populations often opposed immigrant manpower, leading to occasional outbursts of violence. The most violent of these was a pogromA pogrom is a form of riot directed against a particular group, whether ethnic, religious, or other, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes, businesses, and religious centers...
against Italian workers who worked in the salt evaporation ponds of Peccais erupted in Aigues-MortesAigues-Mortes is a commune in the Gard department in southern France.The medieval city walls surrounding the city are well preserved.-History:...
in 1893, killing nine and injuring hundreds on the Italian side.
After World War II
After World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the French fertility rate rebounded considerably, as noted above, but economic growth in France was so high that new immigrants had nonetheless to be brought into the country. This time the majority of immigrants were PortugueseThe Portuguese people are the ethnic group or nation native to the country of Portugal, in the far west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe...
as well as ArabArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
s and Berbers from North AfricaNorth Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the UN definition of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia,Mauritania, and...
. The first wave arrived in the 1950s, but the major arrivals happened in the 1960s and 1970s. More than one million people from the Maghreb immigrated in the 1960s and early 1970s from North Africa, especially AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country on the Mediterranean sea, the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area.It is bordered by Tunisia in...
(following the end of French rule thereFrench rule of Algeria lasted from 1830 to 1962, under a variety of governmental systems. One of France's longest-held overseas territories, Algeria became a destination for hundreds of thousands of European immigrants, known as colons and later, as pieds-noirs...
) . One million European pieds noirs also migrated from Algeria in 1962 and the following years, due to the chaotic independence of Algeria. This is a focal point of the current turbulent relationship of France and over three million French of Algerian descent, a small percentage of whom are third-or fourth-generation French.
In the late 1970s, due to the end of high economic growth in France, immigration policies were considerably tightened, starting with the Pasqua lawsCharles Pasqua is a French businessman and Gaullist politician. He was Interior Minister from 1986 to 1988, under Jacques Chirac's cohabitation government, and also from 1993 to 1995, under the government of Edouard Balladur...
passed in the late 1980s. New immigrants were allowed only through the family reunion schemes (wives and children moving to France to live with their husband or father already living in France), or as political asylum seekers. Illegal immigrationIllegal immigration is immigration across national borders in a way that violates the immigration laws of the destination country. Illegal immigrants are also known as illegal aliens to differentiate them from legal aliens...
thus developed. Nonetheless, immigration rates in the 1980s and 1990s were much lower than in the 1960s and 1970s, especially compared to other European countries. The regions of emigrations also widened, with new immigrants now coming from sub-saharan AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
and AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.Asia is traditionally defined as part of the...
. And in the 1970s, a small but well publicized wave of ChileChile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
an and ArgentineArgentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico,...
political refugees (see Chilean coup of 1973The Chilean coup d'état of 1973 was a watershed event in the history of Chile and the Soviet-American Cold War. On 11 September 1973, the government of President Salvador Allende was overthrown by the military in a coup d’état....
) found asylum in France.
Ethnic Vietnamese started to become a visible segment of society after the massive influx of refugees after the end of the Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War or the Second Indochina War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1959 to 30 April 1975...
in 1975. The expulsions of ethnic ChineseHoa refers to a minority in Vietnam consisting of persons considered to be ethnic Chinese . They are often referred to as either Chinese Vietnamese, Sino-Vietnamese, or ethnic Chinese in/from Vietnam by the Vietnamese populace, Overseas Vietnamese, and other ethnic Chinese...
from Vietnam in the 1970s led to a wave of immigration and the settlement of the high-rise neighbourhood near the Porte d'Italie, where the Chinatown of ParisThis article discusses Chinatowns in Europe. Several urban Chinatowns exist in major European capital cities. There is Chinatown, London, England as well as a major Chinatown in Manchester, and two Chinatowns in Paris, France: One where many Vietnamese - specifically ethnic Chinese refugees from...
is located. Located in the 13th arrondissement, the area contains many ethnic Chinese inhabitants.
The large-scale immigration from IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
ic countries sparked controversy in France. Nevertherless, according to Justin Vaïsse, professor at Sciences Po Paris, in spite of obstacles and spectacular failures like the riots in November 2005The 2005 civil unrest in France of October and November was a series of riots involving mainly the burning of cars and public buildings at night starting on 27 October 2005 in Clichy-sous-Bois. Events spread to poor housing projects in various parts of France. A state of emergency was declared...
, the integration of Muslim immigrants is happening as part of a background evolution and recent studies confirmed the results of their assimilation, showing that "North Africans seem to be characterized by a high degree of cultural integration reflected in a relatively high propensity to exogamyExogamy has two related definitions, both biological and cultural.- Biological exogamy :In biology, exogamy more generally refers to the mating of individuals who are relatively less related genetically: that is, outbreeding as opposed to inbreeding...
" with rates ranging from 20% to 50%. According to Emmanuel ToddEmmanuel Todd is a French historian, demographer, sociologist and political scientist at the National Institute of Demographic Studies , in Paris...
the relatively high exogamy among French Algerians can be explained by the colonial link between France and Algeria.
Immigrants
As of 2006, the French national institute of statistics INSEEINSEE is the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies. It collects and publishes information on the French economy and society, carrying out the periodic national census. Located in Paris, it is the French branch of Eurostat, European Statistical System...
estimated that 4.9 million foreign-born immigrants live in France (8% of the country's population) http://www.insee.fr/fr/ffc/ipweb/ip1098/graphiques.html#graphique1:
The number of French citizens with foreign origins is generally thought to be around 6.7 million http://www.migrationinformation.org/Profiles/display.cfm?ID=266 according to the 1999 Census conducted by INSEE, which ultimately represents one tenth of the country's population. (Ranked by the largest national groups, above 60,000 persons).
Most of the population from immigrant stock is of EuropeanThe European peoples are the various nations and ethnic groups of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe....
descent (mainly from Italy, Spain, and Portugal as well as Poland, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, and the former Yugoslavia) although France has a sizeable population of ArabArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
s and AfricansThe term black people usually refers to a racial group of humans with skin colors that range from light brown to nearly black. It also has been used to categorize a number of diverse populations into a common group. Some definitions of the term include only people of relatively recent Sub Saharan...
from its former colonies, the proportion of immigrants in France is on par with other European nations such as the United Kingdom (8%) http://www.migrationinformation.org/Resources/unitedkingdom.cfm, Germany (9%) http://www.migrationinformation.org/Resources/germany.cfm, the Netherlands (18%) http://www.migrationinformation.org/Resources/netherlands.cfm, Sweden (13%) http://www.migrationinformation.org/Resources/sweden.cfm and Switzerland (19%) http://www.migrationinformation.org/Resources/switzerland.cfm. Outside of Europe and North Africa, the highest rate of immigration is from VietnamVietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east...
, CambodiaThe Kingdom of Cambodia , formerly known as Kampuchea , is a country in South East Asia with a population of over 14 million people. The kingdom's capital and largest city is Phnom Penh...
and SenegalSenegal , officially the Republic of Senegal, is a country south of the Sénégal River in western Africa. Senegal is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Mauritania to the north, Mali to the east, and Guinea and Guinea-Bissau to the south, and it also encircles The Gambia on its three sides,...
.
According to Michèle Tribalat, researcher at INED, it is very difficult to estimate the number of French immigrants or born to immigrants, because of the absence of official statistics. Only three surveys have been conducted: in 1927, 1942, and 1986 respectively. According to a 2004 study, there were approximately 14 million persons of foreign ancestry, defined as either immigrants or people with at least one parent, grandparent, or great-grandparent emigreé. 5.2 million of these people were from South-EuropeThe term Southern Europe, at its most general definition, is used to mean "all countries in the south of Europe". However, the concept, at different times, has had different meanings, providing additional political, linguistic and cultural context to the definition in addition to the typical...
an ascendency (Italy, Spain, Portugal and former Yugoslavia); and 3 million come from the MaghrebThe Maghreb , also rendered Maghrib , meaning "place of sunset" or "western" in Arabic, is a region in North Africa. The term is generally applied to all of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, but in older Arabic usage pertained only to the area of the three countries between the high ranges of the...
(North Africa). Immigrants from the Maghreb are commonly referred to as beurBeur is a verlan term for a descendant of immigrants of North African origin living in France. The word is a reversal of the syllables of the word arabe , formed through the process of verlan. It is a term that can be pejorative in certain circumstances. The term "beur" is also used in...
, a verlanVerlan is an argot in the French language, featuring inversion of syllables in a word, and is common in slang and youth language. It rests on a long French tradition of transposing syllables of individual words to create slang words...
slang term derived from the word arabe (French for Arab).
In 2004, a total of 140,033 people immigrated to France. Of them, 90,250 were from AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
and 13,710 from EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
. In 2005, immigration level fell slightly to 135,890. The European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
allows free movement between the member states. While the UK (along with IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
and SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
) did not impose restrictions, France put in place controls to curb Eastern European migration.
In the 2000s, the net migration rate was estimated to be 0.66 migrants per 1,000 population a year https://cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/fr.html. This is a very low rate of immigrationImmigration is the arrival of new individuals into a habitat or population. It is a biological concept and is important in population ecology, differentiated from emigration and migration.-As a political term:...
compared to other European countries, the USA or Canada. Since the beginning of the 1990s, France has been attempting to curb immigration, first with the Pasqua lawsCharles Pasqua is a French businessman and Gaullist politician. He was Interior Minister from 1986 to 1988, under Jacques Chirac's cohabitation government, and also from 1993 to 1995, under the government of Edouard Balladur...
, followed by both right-wing and socialist-issued laws. The immigration rate is currently lower than in other European countries such as United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
and SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
; however, some say it is doubtful that the policies in themselves account for such a change. Again, as in the 1920s and 1930s, France stands in contrast with the rest of Europe. Back in the 1920s and 1930s, when European countries had a high fertility rate, France had a low fertility rate and had to open its doors to immigration to avoid population decline. Today, it is the rest of Europe that has very low fertility rates, and countries like Germany or Spain avoid population decline only through immigration. In France, however, fertility rate is still fairly high for European standards, in fact the highest in Europe after IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
(the E.U.) and AlbaniaAlbania , officially the Republic of Albania , is a Mediterranean country in South Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Montenegro to the north, Kosovo to the northeast, Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south-east...
(perhaps higher than Ireland's), and so most population growth is due to natural increase, unlike in the other European countries.
This difference in immigration trends is also because the labor market in France is currently less dynamic than in other countries such as the UK, Ireland or Spain, this may even be a more relevant factor than low birth rates (because Ireland has both the highest fertility and the highest net immigration rate in Europe, whereas Eastern European countries such as Russia, Poland, Hungary and the Ukraine have both a low fertility and a high net emigration rate, as well as a high unemployment rate).
For example, according to the UK Office for National StatisticsThe Office for National Statistics is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom.-Overview:...
, in the three years between July 2001 and July 2004 the population of the UK increased by 721,500 inhabitants, of which 242,800 (34%) was due to natural increase, and 478,500 (66%) to immigration. According to the INSEEINSEE is the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies. It collects and publishes information on the French economy and society, carrying out the periodic national census. Located in Paris, it is the French branch of Eurostat, European Statistical System...
, in the three years between January 2001 and January 2004 the population of Metropolitan FranceMetropolitan France is the part of France located in Europe, including Corsica. It can also be described as mainland France or as the French mainland and the island of Corsica...
increased by 1,057,000 inhabitants, of which 678,000 (64%) was due to natural increase, and 379,500 (36%) to immigration.
The latest 2008 demographic statistics have been released, and France's birthCrude birth rate is the nativity or childbirths per 1,000 people per year.According to the United Nations' World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision Population Database, crude birth rate is the Number of births over a given period divided by the person-years lived by the population over that...
and fertility rates have continued to rise. The fertility rate increased to 2.02 in 2008 and for the first time approaches the fertility rate of the United States.
Religion
France has not collected religious or ethnic data in its censuses since the beginning of the Third RepublicThe French Third Republic was the republican government of France between the end of the Second French Empire in 1870 and the Vichy Regime after the invasion of France by the German...
, but the country's predominant faith has been Roman Catholicism since the early Middle Ages. Church attendance is fairly low, however, and the proportion of the population that is not religious has grown over the past century. A 2004 IFOP survey tallied that 44% of the French people do not believe in God; contrast with 20% in 1947 http://www.ifop.com/europe/sondages/opinionf/croyances.asp. A study by the CSA Institute conducted in 2003 with a sample of 18,000 people found that 27% consider themselves atheists, and 65.3% Roman Catholic compared to 67% in 2001 . Furthermore 12.7% (8,065,000 people) belonged to some other religion.
There are an estimated 5-6 million Muslims, 1 million Protestants, 500-600,000 Jews, 600,000 Buddhists, and 150,000 Orthodox Christians as of 2000 figures . The last figure does not appear to include high numbers of Apostolic Armenians present in the country's two main conurbations. The US State Department's International Religious Freedom Report 2004 .http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/ estimated the French Hindu population at 181,312.
These studies did not ask the respondants if they were practicing or how often they did practice if they were active in the laity.
Fertility
France is said to be experiencing a new baby boom due to the rise in fertility rate and in births.
- Total fertility rate: 2.02 children born per woman for metropolitan France
Metropolitan France is the part of France located in Europe, including Corsica. It can also be described as mainland France or as the French mainland and the island of Corsica...
and the overseas departments (in 2008), 2.00 for metropolitan France alone (in 2008).
- Mean age of women having their first birth: 29.9 years-old.
The total fertility rateThe total fertility rate of a population is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime if she were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates through her lifetime, and she...
s (TFR) for metropolitan FranceMetropolitan France is the part of France located in Europe, including Corsica. It can also be described as mainland France or as the French mainland and the island of Corsica...
yearwise is given below. (Sources: http://www.insee.fr/fr/ppp/bases-de-donnees/irweb/sd20071/dd/excel/sd20071_t34_fm.xls, http://www.insee.fr/fr/ppp/bases-de-donnees/irweb/sd2006/dd/excel/sd2006_t44_fm.xls, and http://www.insee.fr/fr/ffc/ipweb/ip1220/ip1220.xls)
| Year |
Births |
TFR |
Year |
Births |
TFR |
| 1960 |
819,951 |
2.74 |
1995 |
729,609 |
1.71 |
| 1964 |
877,800 |
2.91 |
1996 |
734,338 |
1.73 |
| 1970 |
850,381 |
2.48 |
1997 |
726,768 |
1.73 |
| 1971 |
881,284 |
2.50 |
1998 |
738,080 |
1.76 |
| 1972 |
877,506 |
2.42 |
1999 |
744,791 |
1.79 |
| 1973 |
857,186 |
2.31 |
2000 |
774,782 |
1.87 |
| 1974 |
801,218 |
2.11 |
2001 |
770,945 |
1.88 |
| 1975 |
745,065 |
1.93 |
2002 |
761,630 |
1.86 |
| 1980 |
800,376 |
1.95 |
2003 |
761,464 |
1.87 |
| 1985 |
768,431 |
1.81 |
2004 |
767,816 |
1.90 |
| 1990 |
762,407 |
1.78 |
2005 |
774,355 |
1.92 |
| 1991 |
759,100 |
1.77 |
2006 |
796,896 |
1.98 |
| 1992 |
743,658 |
1.73 |
2007 |
785,985 |
1.96 |
| 1993 |
711,610 |
1.66 |
2008 |
801,000 |
2.00 |
| 1994 |
710,993 |
1.66 |
|
|
|
| Year |
Births |
TFR |
Year |
Births |
TFR |
The table below gives the average number of children according to the place of birth of women. An immigrant woman is a woman who was born outside of France and who did not have French citizenship at birth. Source - French-Wikipedia
|
Average number of children in France
(1991-1998) |
Average number of children in country of origin
(1990-1999) |
| All women living in metropolitan France Metropolitan France is the part of France located in Europe, including Corsica. It can also be described as mainland France or as the French mainland and the island of Corsica...
|
1.74 |
|
| Women born in Metropolitan France |
1.70 |
|
| Immigrant women |
2.16 |
|
| Women born in overseas France |
1.86 |
|
| Immigrant women (country of birth) |
|
|
| Spain |
1.52 |
1.23 |
| Italy |
1.60 |
1.24 |
| Portugal |
1.96 |
1.49 |
| Other EU |
1.66 |
1.44 |
| Turkey |
3.21 |
1.92 |
| Other Europe |
1.68 |
1.41 |
| Algeria |
2.57 |
3.64 |
| Morocco |
2.97 |
3.28 |
| Tunisia |
2.90 |
2.73 |
| Other Africa |
2.86 |
5.89 |
| Asia (Mostly China) |
1.77 |
2.85 |
| The Americas and Oceania |
2.00 |
2.54 |
Education
Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99%
male: 99%
female: 99% (2003 est.)
CIA World Factbook demographic statistics
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
Age structure
- 0-14 years: 18.6% (male 6,063,181/female 5,850,272)
- 15-64 years: 65.2% (male 20,798,889/female 20,763,283)
- 65 years and over: 16.2% (male 4,274,290/female 6,750,011) (2007 est.)
Sex ratio
- at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
- under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
- 15-64 years: 1.002 male(s)/female
- 65 years and over: 0.708 male(s)/female
- total population: 0.956 male(s)/female (2007 est.)
Infant mortality rate
- total: 3.41 deaths/1,000 live births
- male: 3.76 deaths/1,000 live births
- female: 3.04 deaths/1,000 live births (2007 est.)
Life expectancy at birth
- total population: 80.59 years
- male: 77.5 years (2007 est.)
- female: 84.4 years (2007 est.)
Ethnic groups
As officially stated by the French government and 2001 French Census reports on the ethnological origins of the French people. Note the French government does not officially classify people by race or ethnicity, in order to encourage integration, assimilation and patriotic unity of all French people regardless of ethnic and national origins as policy since the French Revolution.
The modern ethnic French are the descendants of Celts, IberiansThe Iberians were a set of peoples that Greek and Roman sources identified with that name in the eastern and southern coasts of the Iberian peninsula at least from the 6th century BC...
, LiguriansThe Ligures were an ancient people who gave their name to Liguria, which once stretched from Northern Italy into southern Gaul. According to Plutarch they called themselves Ambrones which means ¨people of the water¨...
and GreeksThe Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in diaspora communities around the world....
in southern France, mixed with Germanic peoplesThe Germanic peoples are a historical ethno-linguistic group, originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Common Germanic in the course of the Pre-Roman Iron Age...
arriving at the end of the Roman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
such as the FranksThe Franks or Frankish people were a West Germanic tribal confederation first attested in the 3rd century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul...
and the BurgundiansThe Burgundians were an East Germanic tribe which may have emigrated from mainland Scandinavia to the island of Bornholm, whose old form in Old Norse still was Burgundarholmr , and from there to mainland Europe. In Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar, Veseti settled in an island or holm, which was called...
, some MoorsThe description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of Muslim people of Berber, Black African and Arab descent from North Africa, some of whom came to conquer and occupy the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. The North Africans termed it Al Andalus, comprising most...
and Saracens, and some Vikings known as NormansThe Normans were the people who gave their names to Normandy, a region in northern France. They descended from Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of mostly Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
who settled mostly in NormandyNormandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is situated along the English Channel coast of Northern France between Brittany and Picardy and comprises territory in northern France and the Channel Islands.Normandy is divided between French and British...
in the 9th century.
An estimated thirteen million French citizens, or about one-fifth of the population, are of ethnic or national non-French origins. Of European ethnic groupsThe European peoples are the various nations and ethnic groups of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe....
, the most numerous are people of ItalianThe Italian people are an ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common Italian culture, descent, and speaking the Italian language as a mother tongue...
family origin, who make up approximately 9% of the population in France. http://books.google.com/books?id=BLo2RqGdv_wC&pg=PA143&lpg=PA143&dq=5+million+italians+in+france&source=web&ots=FS8QNMYmoq&sig=dDwUB09FSWcdigHxd0PeG5L94vc#PPA143,M1 This is due to waves of Italian immigration, notably during the late 19th and early 20th century. Other large European groups of non-native origin are Spaniards, PortugueseThe Portuguese people are the ethnic group or nation native to the country of Portugal, in the far west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe...
, Polish, and Greeks. Also, due to more recent immigration, a total of five million ArabArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
-BerberBerbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are discontinuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke various Berber languages, which together form a branch of the...
people and approximately 500,000 TurksTurks in France are either those who live in France even though they are not citizens of the county, or are French citizens of ethnic Turkish ancesty or with roots from Turkey.- History :...
inhabit France. Black peopleBlack people in France are those French people who are of Black African and Black Caribbean ancestry. There are around 3-4 million Black people living in France , according to a CSA survey....
(5-6% of the population) come from both the French overseas territories and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Religions
Note they are estimates in the 2001 French Census, since the French government forbids collective data of individuals' religious faith.
- Roman Catholic 51 %, unaffiliated (Theist, Agnostic or Atheist) 31%, Muslims 11%, Protestant (Calvinist, Lutheran, Anglican and Evangelical) 3%, Jewish 1% - the largest post-WWII European Jewish community, Eastern Orthodox (Greek and Armenian) 1%, Eastern religions (Hindu and Buddhist) 1% introduced to France, and pagan 1%- rapid growth of Neo-Pagan religions of Celtic rites
Overseas departments and territories: Roman Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, pagan and atheist.
Languages
- French 100%, rapidly declining regional languages and their several dialects (Franco-Provençal
Franco-Provençal or Arpitan or Romand is a Romance language with several distinct dialects that form a linguistic sub-group separate from Langue d'Oïl and Langue d'Oc. The name Franco-Provençal was given to the language by G.I...
, Occitan, BretonThe Breton language is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France.-History:Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish,...
, CatalanCatalan is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencià , as well as in the city of Alghero on the Italian island of...
, PicardPicard is a language closely related to French, and as such is one of the larger group of Romance languages. It is spoken in two regions in the far north of France – Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy – and in parts of the Belgian region Wallonia, district of Tournai and a piece of...
, AlsatianAlsatian means "from Alsace".It can refer to:* Alsatian language, the language or dialect of the Alsace region of Northeast France* A person from the Alsace region from France , or a speaker of the Alsatian language...
, Poitevin, SaintongeaisSaintongeais is a dialect spoken halfway down the western coast of France in the former provinces of Saintonge, Aunis and Angoumois, all of which have been incorporated into the current départements of Charente and Charente-Maritime as well as in parts of their neighbouring départements of...
, CorsicanCoriscan refers to anything having to do with the French island of Corsica including the Corsican language.Corsican may also refer to:*The Corsican Brothers, a novella by Alexandre Dumas, père first published in 1844...
, BasqueBasque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is the mother tongue of approximately one fifth of Basques, 632,000 out of nearly 3,000,000...
, BurgundianBurgundian can refer to any of the following:*Burgundians, an East Germanic tribe, who first appear in history in South East Europe. Later Burgundians colonised the area of Gaul that is now know as Burgundy ....
, West FlemishWest Flemish is a group of Dutch dialects spoken in parts of the Netherlands, Belgium, and France....
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overseas departments: French, Créole patois
adjective: French
See also
- French people
French people can refer to:* The legal residents and citizens of France, regardless of ancestry. For a legal discussion, see French nationality law.* People whose ancestors lived in France or the area that later became France....
- officially a nationality, also discusses overseas French descendants.
- List of French people
- Racism by country
The article describes the state of race relations and racism in a number of countries. Racism of various forms is found in every country on Earth. Racism is widely condemned throughout the world, with 170 states signatories of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial...
- Racism in EuropeThe article describes the state of race relations and racism in Europe. Racism of various forms is found in every country on Earth. Racism is widely condemned throughout the world, with 170 states signatories of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination...
- Article on race relations in France
- List of fifteen largest French metropolitan areas by population
The aire urbaine is a statistical region created by the INSEE that is comprised by a commuter belt surrounding a contiguous urban core...
- INSEE code
The INSEE code is a numerical indexing code used by the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies to identify various entities, including communes, départements...
- Pied-noirs, the name for French settlers in Algeria
- Franco-Mauritian
Franco-Mauritians are people of French origin who reside in Mauritius. They number more than 24,000.-Origins:The first Franco-Mauritians arrived to colonise Mauritius after the Portuguese and Dutch abandoned the islands. They set up sugarcane plantations, then imported slaves from Africa and...
- Caldoches
- Population of Paris
- Jews in France
The history of the Jews of France dates back over 2000 years. In the early Middle Ages, France was a center of Jewish learning, but persecution increased as the Middle Ages wore on...
- French immigration to Puerto Rico
The French immigration to Puerto Rico came about as a result of the economic and political situations which occurred in various places such as Louisiana , Saint-Domingue and in Europe....
- French Canadian
French Canadian refers to a nation or ethnic group of French descent that originated in Canada during the period of French colonization beginning in the 17th century. They constitute the main French-speaking population of Canada...
- French American
French Americans or Franco-Americans are Americans of French descent. About 11.8 million U.S. residents are of French descent, and about 1.6 million speak French at home.An additional 450,000 U.S...
External links