This
article is about the demographic
features of the population of France
, including
population density, ethnicity, 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 France, whereas 2,624,505
live in the
French overseas
departments and territories.
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 boom following
World War II. 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 in the
Maghreb (or
North Africa).
French law facilitated the immigration of
thousands of colons, ethnic or national French from former
colonies of North and West Africa,
India
and Indochina, to mainland
France. 1.6 million European pieds noirs migrated from Algeria
, Tunisia
and Morocco
. In
the 1970s, over 30,000 French
colons left Cambodia during
the
Khmer Rouge regime as the
Pol Pot 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 level. 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
INSEE 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."
[10492]
Please note:
- figures are for metropolitan France
only, excluding overseas departments
and territories, as well as former French colonies and protectorates.
Algeria 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
and Nice
, 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 Alsace
and part of
Lorraine, 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:
Historical overview
1800 to 20th century
Starting around 1800, the historical evolution of the population in
France has been extremely atypical in the
Western World. Unlike the rest of
Europe, France did not experience a strong population
growth in the 19th century and first half of the 20th century. The
birth rate 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 Germany
and the
United
Kingdom
, experienced virtually zero growth. This,
and the bloody losses in France's population due to the
First World War, may explain the sudden collapse
of France in 1940 during the
Second World
War. 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
Nazi 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-Saxon "races". In addition,
the slow growth of France's population in the 19th century was
reflected in the country's very low
emigration rate. While millions of people from
all other parts of Europe moved to the Americas, few French did so.
Most
people in the United
States
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 Germany 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 England
and Wales
(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 XIV (the Sun
King), then France would in fact have the same population as the
United
States. While France had been very powerful in
Europe at the time of
Louis XIV
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 World, in the sense
that although the rest of the Western World experienced a baby boom 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
States 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 Ireland
and the Netherlands
. However, it is significantly slower than
that of the United
States, 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
, and the
third most populous country in the world, behind only China
and India
- between 1795 and 1866, metropolitan France
was the second most populous country of Europe, behind Russia, and the
fourth most populous country in the world, behind China, India, and
Russia
- between 1866 and 1911, metropolitan France
was the third most populous country of Europe, behind Russia and Germany
- between 1911 and 1931, metropolitan France
was the fourth most populous country of Europe, behind Russia, Germany, and the United Kingdom
- between 1931 and 1991, metropolitan France
was the fifth most populous country of Europe, behind Russia, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy
- between 1991 and 2000, metropolitan France
recovered its rank as the fourth most populous country of Europe,
behind Russia, Germany, and the United Kingdom
- since
2000, metropolitan France has recovered its rank as the third most
populous country of Europe, behind Russia and Germany. 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.
Note that
in above data, Turkey
is not
regarded as a European country.
Immigration
Before World War II
In the twentieth century, France experienced a high rate of
immigration 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 I, 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.
Armenians
immigrated to France after the
Armenian Genocide of 1915. The majority of
immigrants in the 1920s and 1930s came from
southern Europe: Greeks,
Italians,
Yugoslavs,
Portuguese and Spaniards, but also
Eastern Europeans: Poles, Russians,
Hungarians and Czechoslovaks; and Belgians (nationality, but
composed of both French and
Fleming-
Dutch
elements) and the first wave of colonial French subjects from
Africa and
Asia. By the
end of the
Spanish Civil War, some
half-million Spanish Republican
refugees had
crossed
the border into France. At
this time,
Judaism 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 pogrom against Italian workers who worked in the
salt evaporation ponds of
Peccais erupted in Aigues-Mortes
in 1893, killing nine and injuring hundreds on the
Italian side.
After World War II
After
World War II, 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
Portuguese as well as
Arabs and
Berbers from
North Africa. 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 Algeria (following
the end of French rule there)
. 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 laws 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
immigration 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
Africa and
Asia.
And in the 1970s, a small but well
publicized wave of Chilean
and Argentine
political refugees (see Chilean coup of 1973) 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
War in 1975. The expulsions of 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 Paris is located.
Located
in the 13th arrondissement
, the area contains many ethnic Chinese
inhabitants.
The large-scale immigration from
Islamic
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
2005, 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 exogamy"
with rates ranging from 20% to 50%. According to
Emmanuel Todd the relatively high exogamy
among French Algerians can be explained by the colonial link
between France and Algeria.
Today
Immigrants
As of 2006, the French national institute of statistics
INSEE estimated that 4.9 million foreign-born
immigrants live in France (8% of the country's population)
[10493]:The number of French citizens with
foreign origins is generally thought to be around 6.7 million
[10494] 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
European 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
Arabs and
Africans from its former colonies, the
proportion of immigrants in France is on par with other European
nations such as the United Kingdom (8%)
[10495], Germany (9%)
[10496], the Netherlands (18%)
[10497], Sweden (13%)
[10498] and Switzerland (19%)
[10499].
Outside of Europe and North Africa, the
highest rate of immigration is from Vietnam
, Cambodia
and Senegal
.
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-Europe
ascendency (Italy, Spain, Portugal and former Yugoslavia); and 3
million come from the
Maghreb (North
Africa). Immigrants from the Maghreb are commonly referred to as
beur, a
verlan
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
Africa and 13,710 from
Europe. In 2005, immigration level fell
slightly to 135,890. The
European
Union allows free movement between the member states.
While the
UK
(along with Ireland and Sweden
) 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
[10500]. This is a very low rate of
immigration 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 laws, followed by both
right-wing and
socialist-issued laws.
The immigration rate
is currently lower than in other European countries such as
United
Kingdom and Spain
; 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 Ireland (the E.U.) and Albania
(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
Statistics, 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
INSEE, in the
three years between January 2001 and January 2004 the population of
Metropolitan France 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
birth 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
Republic, 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
[10501]. 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 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 .
[10502]
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 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 rates (TFR)
for
metropolitan France yearwise
is given below. (Sources:
[10503],
[10504], and
[10505])
| 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 |
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 |
|
Languages
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.
Population
- total: 63,713,926
- note: 60,876,136 in metropolitan France (July 2007 est.)
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.)
Median age
- total: 39 years
- male: 37.5 years
- female: 40.4 years (2007 est.)
Population Growth Rate
- 0.588% (2007 est.)
Birth rate
- 12.91 births/1,000 population (2007 est.)
Death rate
- 8.97 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Net migration rate
- 1.52 migrant(s)/1,000 population (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.)
Total fertility rate
- 2.02 children born/woman (2008 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate
- 0.7% (2007 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS
- 150,000 (2007 est.)
Nationality
plural noun: Frenchmen (for males) and Frenchwomen (for
females)
Ethnic groups
The modern ethnic French are the descendants of
Celts,
Iberians,
Ligurians and
Greeks in
southern France, mixed with
Germanic
peoples arriving at the end of the
Roman Empire such as the
Franks and the
Burgundians, some
Moors and
Saracens, and some
Vikings known as
Normans who
settled mostly in
Normandy in the 9th
century.
It is illegal for the French state to collect data on ethnicity and
race, a law with its origins in the
1789 revolution and reaffirmed in the
constitution of 1958. Some
organisations, such as the Representative Council of Black
Associations ( , CRAN), have argued in favour of the introduction
of data collection on minority groups but this has been resisted by
other organisations and ruling politicians, often on the grounds
that collecting such statistics goes against France's secular
principles and harks back to
Vichy-era
identity documents. During the
2007 presidential
election, however,
Nicolas
Sarkozy was polled on the issue and stated that he favoured the
collection of data on ethnicity. Part of a parliamentary bill which
would have permitted the collection of data for the purpose of
measuring discrimination was rejected by the
Conseil Constitutionnel in November
2007.
An estimated thirteen million French citizens, or about one-fifth
of the population, are of ethnic or national non-French origins. Of
European ethnic groups, the
most numerous are people of
Italian
family origin and it is estimated that about 5 million French
Nationals (8% of the population in France) are of Italian origine
if their parentage is retraced over three generations.
[10506] 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,
Portuguese,
Polish, and
Greek.
Also, due to more recent immigration, a total of five million
Arab-
Berber people
and approximately 500,000
Turks
inhabit France. An influx of North African Jews immigrated to
France in the 1950's and after the Algerian War due to the decline
of the French empire. Subsequent waves of immigration followed the
Six-Day War, when some Moroccan and Tunisian Jews settled in
France. Hence, by 1968, North African Jews were about 500.000 and
the majority in France. As these new immigrants were already
culturally French they needed little time to adjust to French
society.
Black people (3% of the
population) come from both the French overseas territories and
Sub-Saharan Africa.
Although it is illegal in France for a census to be taken on race
or religion, Solis, a marketing company, estimated recently the
numbers for Ethnic minorities in France as follows :
- 3.264M North African (5.23%)
- 1.080M Sub-Saharan African (1.73%)
- 600,000 Jews (1%, mostly of North African origin)
- 441,000 Turkish (0.71%)
- 757,000 French overseas departéments and territories
(1.21%)
Religions
Note they are estimates in the 2001 French Census, since the French
government forbids collective data of individuals' religious
faith.
- Roman Catholic 49 %, unaffiliated (Theist, Agnostic or Atheist) 31%, Muslims 10%, Protestant (Calvinist,
Lutheran, Anglican and Evangelical) 3%, Jewish 4% - 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, Occitan, Breton,
Catalan, Picard, Alsatian,
Poitevin, Saintongeais, Corsican,
Basque, Burgundian, West
Flemish...)
overseas departments: French, Créole patoisadjective: French
References
- For Pieds-Noirs, the Anger Endures
- Spanish Civil War fighters look back, BBC News,
February 23, 2003
- Enzo Barnabà, Le sang des marais, Marseille, 1993
- On French immigrants, the words left
unsaid
- Smith, Craig S. Face behind Paris 'bistro' counter becomes Asian.
International Herald
Tribune, 10 May 2005.
- Unrest in France, November 2005 : immigration,
islam and the challenge of integration, Justin Vaïsse,
Presentation to Congressional Staff, January 10 and 12, 2006,
Washington, DC
- "Compared with the Europeans, the Tunisians belong to a much
more recent wave of migration and occupy a much less favourable
socioeconomic position, yet their pattern of marriage behaviour is
nonetheless similar (...). Algerian and Moroccan immigrants have a
higher propensity to exogamy than Asians or Portuguese but a much
weaker labour market position. (...) Confirming the results from
other analyses of immigrant assimilation in France, this study
shows that North Africans seem to be characterized by a high degree
of cultural integration (reflected in a relatively high propensity
to exogamy, notably for Tunisians) that contrasts with a persistent
disadvantage in the labour market.", Intermarriage and assimilation: disparities in levels of
exogamy among immigrants in France, Mirna Safi, Volume 63
2008/2
- Emmanuel
Todd, Le destin des immigrés: assimilation et ségrégation
dans les démocraties occidentales, Paris, 1994, p.307
- Many famous French people, including Edith Piaf, Zinedine Zidane, Isabelle Adjani,
Alain
Bashung, Claude
Zidi, Arnaud Montebourg, Catherine
Belkhodja, Jacques Villeret and Dany Boon, are partly of Algerian
descent.
- Michèle Tribalat's 2004 study for the INED
- Inflow of third-country nationals by country of
nationality
- Immigration and the 2007 French Presidential
Elections
- UK Office for National Statistics estimate
- INSEE pdf estimates
- In 2003, the French Ministry of the Interior estimated the
total number of Muslims as 5-6 million whereas the "Front National"
spoke about 8 million, in Jonathan Laurence and Justin
Vaïsse,Intégrer l'Islam, Odile Jacob, 2007
- INSEE, Bilan démographique 2007 - Mortalité
- Éric Gailledrat, Les Ibères de l'Èbre à l'Hérault (VIe-IVe
s. avant J.-C.), Lattes, Sociétés de la Protohistoire et de
l'Antiquité en France Méditerranéenne, Monographies d'Archéologie
Méditerranéenne - 1, 1997
- Dominique Garcia: Entre Ibères et Ligures. Lodévois et
moyenne vallée de l'Hérault protohistoriques. Paris, CNRS éd.,
1993; Les Ibères dans le midi de la France. L'Archéologue,
n°32, 1997, pp. 38-40
- "Les Gaulois figurent seulement parmi d'autres dans la
multitude de couches de peuplement fort divers (Ligures, Ibères,
Latins, Francs et Alamans, Nordiques, Sarrasins...) qui aboutissent
à la population du pays à un moment donné ", Jean-Louis
Brunaux, Nos ancêtres les Gaulois, éd. Seuil, 2008, p.
261
- "Notre Midi a sa pinte de sang sarrasin", Fernand Braudel,
L'identité de la France - Les Hommes et les Choses (1986),
Flammarion, 1990, p. 215
- "Les premiers musulmans arrivèrent en France à la suite de
l'occupation de l'Espagne par les Maures, il y a plus d'un
millénaire, et s'installèrent dans les environs de Toulouse - et
jusqu'en Bourgogne. A Narbonne, les traces d'une mosquée datant du
VIIIe siècle sont le témoignage de l'ancienneté de ce passé. Lors
de la célèbre, et en partie mythologique, bataille de Poitiers en
732, dont les historiens reconsidèrent aujourd'hui l'importance,
Charles Martel aurait stoppé la progression des envahisseurs
arabes. Des réfugiés musulmans qui fuyaient la Reconquista
espagnole, et plus tard l'Inquisition, firent souche en
Languedoc-Roussillon et dans le Pays basque français, ainsi que
dans le Béarn", Justin Vaïsse, Intégrer
l'Islam, Odile Jacob, 2007, pp. 32-33
- " Les Sarrasins gardèrent longtemps sur les côtes de la
Provence, à la Garde-Freinet, un solide point d'appui et de là
purent faire des incursions dans une partie de la France. Au
huitième siècle, lors de l'invasion des Berbères dit Arabes,
ceux-ci avaient pénétré jusque dans la vallée de la Loire : on
parle même de leur venue dans la région orientale de la France, à
Luxeuil, dans les Vosges et devant Metz. [...] les observations des
anthropologistes ne permettent pas de douter que nombre de familles
françaises dans les bassins de la Garonne et du Rhône ne soient
issus des envahisseurs musulmans, Berbères modifiés par leur
croisement avec les Espagnols, les Arabes et les noirs d'Afrique.",
Élisée
Reclus, Nouvelle géographie universelle: la terre et les
hommes, Élisée Reclus, éd. Hachette, 1881, t. 2, chap. 1-Vue
d'ensemble - Le milieu et la race, Ançêtres de Français, p.
45-46
- "L'élément sémitique, juif et arabe, était fort en Languedoc.
Narbonne avait été longtemps la capitale des Sarrasins en France.
(...) Ces nobles du Midi étaient des gens d'esprit qui savaient
bien la plupart que penser de leur noblesse. Il n'y en avait guère
qui, en remontant un peu, ne rencontrassent dans leur généalogie
quelque grand-mère sarrasine ou juive.", Jules Michelet,
Histoire de France, éd. Chamerot, 1861, t. 2, p. 335
- "Bien que le séjour des Arabes en France n'ait été constitué
que par une série de courtes invasions, ils ont laissé des traces
profondes de leur passage dans la langue, et [...] ils en ont
laissé également dans le sang. [...] L'ethnologie nous en fournit
la preuve, en retrouvant, après tant de siècles, des descendants
des Arabes sur plusieurs parties de notre sol. Dans le département
de la Creuse, dans les Hautes-Alpes, et notamment dans plusieurs
localités situées autour de Montmaure (montagne des Maures), dans
le canton de Baignes (Charente), de même que dans certains villages
des Landes, du Roussillon, du Languedoc, du Béarn, les descendants
des Arabes sont facilement reconnaissables.", Gustave Le Bon, La
Civilisation des Arabes (1884), La Fontaine au Roy, 1990, p.
237
- "Il est certain que, de nos jours, on peut encore trouver en
France des descendants des Sarrasins, notamment dans toute la
région du sud de la Loire, dans les monts d'Auvergne, en Guyenne,
en Languedoc et en Provence, voire même en Bourgogne.",
René
Martial, La Race française (1934), Mercure de France,
1934, p. 101-102
- The normans Jersey heritage trust
- Dudo of St. Quentin's Gesta Normannorum, English
translation How normans conquered the future Normandy, got
established and allied with western Frankish by inter-marriage with
Kings Rollo and William
- France's crisis of national identity,
The
Independant, Wednesday, 25 November 2009
- As per a CSA Study (Dec 2006)
See also
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