Demographics of France

With a total fertility rate of 2.01 (in 2010),^[1] France is the most fertile country in the European Union after Ireland.

Population density in the French Republic at the 1999 census. All territories are shown at the same geographic scale.

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, 2011, 65,821,885 people live in the French Republic.^[1] 63,136,180 of these live in metropolitan France,^[2] whereas 2,685,705 live in the French overseas departments and territories.

At the beginning of the 20th century, France's population was low compared to its neighbours and 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.^[3] 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 continued 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."^[4]

As of 2008, the French national institute of statistics INSEE estimated that 11.8 million foreign-born immigrants and their direct descendants (second generation) lived in France representing 19% of the country's population. About 5,5 million are of European origin and 4 million of Maghrebi origin.^[5][6]

Historical population of metropolitan France

Please note:

• figures are for metropolitan France only, excluding overseas departments and territories, as ormer 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	61,399,719
1801	29,361,000	1891	39,946,000	2011	63,136,180 (*)[2]

(*) Note:

• 63,136,180 total without overseas departments and territories.
• 65,821,885 total with overseas departments and territories.^[1]

Projections

Source: [1] Figures are for metropolitan France only.

Year	Population
2015	64,514,000
2020	65,962,000
2025	67,285,000
2030	68,532,000
2035	69,705,000
2040	70,734,000
2050	72,275,000
2060	73,557,000

Historical overview

1800 to 20th century

France was historically the largest nation of Europe. During the Middle Ages more than one quarter of Europe’s population was French; during the 17th century it was still one fifth.

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.^{[original research?]} France was often perceived as a country facing irrecoverable decline.^{[citation needed]} 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.

Two centuries of population growth

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, and suffered much larger military and civilian losses during the World Wars than France did. 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 one starts 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 resulted in it losing this advantage.

After World War II

After 1945 however, France suddenly underwent a demographic recovery. 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 slower than that of the United States, largely because of the higher net migration rate of the USA.

The following list shows the past, present, and future weight of France's population in Europe and in the world:
(historical populations are counted in the 2011 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 1909, metropolitan France was the third most populous country of Europe, behind Russia and Germany
• between 1909 and 1933, metropolitan France was the fourth most populous country of Europe, behind Russia, Germany, and the United Kingdom
• between 1933 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.
• In 2005 it was expected that current demographic trends continuing (i.e. declining population in Germany, and slightly rising population in France and the UK), around 2050 metropolitan France could again surpass the population of Germany, becoming the most populous state in the European Union.^[7] But more recent (2009) UN projections say that the stronger-growing United Kingdom could be more populous than metropolitan France in 2050, leaving metropolitan France third amongst European nations, behind Russia and the UK,^[8] but the entire French Republic will remain more populated than the UK.^[9]

Note that in the above list, Turkey is not regarded as a European country. Turkey was less populous than metropolitan France until 1992, and has been more populous since then.^[10]

Vital statistics^[11]

	Average population (x 1000)	Live births	Deaths	Natural change	Crude birth rate (per 1000)	Crude death rate (per 1000)	Natural change (per 1000)
1901	40 710	917 075	825 315	91 760	22.5	20.3	2.3
1902	40 810	904 434	801 379	103 055	22.2	19.6	2.5
1903	40 910	884 498	794 566	89 932	21.6	19.4	2.2
1904	41 000	877 091	802 536	74 555	21.4	19.6	1.8
1905	41 050	865 604	812 338	53 266	21.1	19.8	1.3
1906	41 100	864 745	820 051	44 694	21.0	20.0	1.1
1907	41 100	829 632	830 871	-1 239	20.2	20.2	0.0
1908	41 190	848 982	784 415	64 567	20.6	19.0	1.6
1909	41 240	824 739	792 798	31 941	20.0	19.2	0.8
1910	41 350	828 140	737 877	90 263	20.0	17.8	2.2
1911	41 420	793 506	813 653	-20 147	19.2	19.6	-0.5
1912	41 530	801 642	726 848	74 794	19.3	17.5	1.8
1913	41 620	795 851	736 937	58 914	19.1	17.7	1.4
1914	41 630	757 931	774 931	-17 000	18.2	18.6	-0.4
1915	40 620	482 968	747 968	-265 000	11.9	18.4	-6.5
1916	40 020	384 676	697 676	-313 000	9.6	17.4	-7.8
1917	39 420	412 744	712 744	-300 000	10.5	18.1	-7.6
1918	38 670	472 816	867 816	-395 000	12.2	22.4	-10.2
1919	38 600	506 960	739 901	-232 941	13.1	19.2	-6.0
1920	38 900	838 137	675 676	162 461	21.5	17.4	4.2
1921	39 140	816 555	697 904	118 651	20.9	17.8	3.0
1922	39 310	764 373	692 322	72 051	19.4	17.6	1.8
1923	39 750	765 888	670 326	95 562	19.3	16.9	2.4
1924	40 170	757 873	683 296	74 577	18.9	17.0	1.9
1925	40 460	774 455	712 211	62 244	19.1	17.6	1.5
1926	40 710	771 690	716 966	54 724	19.0	17.6	1.3
1927	40 770	748 102	679 809	68 293	18.3	16.7	1.7
1928	40 880	753 570	678 269	75 301	18.4	16.6	1.8
1929	41 020	734 140	742 732	-8 592	17.9	18.1	-0.2
1930	41 340	754 020	652 953	101 067	18.2	15.8	2.4
1931	41 550	737 611	682 816	54 795	17.8	16.4	1.3
1932	41 510	726 299	663 705	62 594	17.5	16.0	1.5
1933	41 520	682 394	664 133	18 261	16.4	16.0	0.4
1934	41 570	681 518	637 713	43 805	16.4	15.3	1.1
1935	41 550	643 870	661 722	-17 852	15.5	15.9	-0.4
1936	41 500	634 344	645 844	-11 500	15.3	15.6	-0.3
1937	41 530	621 453	632 896	-11 443	15.0	15.2	-0.3
1938	41 560	615 582	650 832	-35 250	14.8	15.7	-0.8
1939	41 510	615 599	645 677	-30 078	14.8	15.6	-0.7
1940	40 690	561 281	740 281	-179 000	13.8	18.2	-4.4
1941	39 420	522 261	675 261	-153 000	13.2	17.1	-3.9
1942	39 220	575 261	656 261	-81 000	14.7	16.7	-2.1
1943	38 860	615 780	626 780	-11 000	15.8	16.1	-0.3
1944	38 770	629 878	666 878	-37 000	16.2	17.2	-1.0
1945	39 660	645 899	643 899	2 000	16.3	16.2	0.1
1946	40 287	843 904	545 880	298 024	20.9	13.5	7.4
1947	40 679	870 472	538 157	332 315	21.4	13.2	8.2
1948	41 112	870 836	513 210	357 626	21.2	12.5	8.7
1949	41 480	872 661	573 598	299 063	21.0	13.8	7.2
1950	41 829	862 310	534 480	327 830	20.6	12.8	7.8
1951	42 156	826 722	565 829	260 893	19.6	13.4	6.2
1952	42 460	822 204	524 831	297 373	19.4	12.4	7.0
1953	42 752	804 696	556 983	247 713	18.8	13.0	5.8
1954	43 057	810 754	518 892	291 862	18.8	12.1	6.8
1955	43 428	805 917	526 322	279 595	18.6	12.1	6.4
1956	43 843	806 916	545 700	261 216	18.4	12.4	6.0
1957	44 311	816 467	532 107	284 360	18.4	12.0	6.4
1958	44 789	812 215	500 596	311 619	18.1	11.2	7.0
1959	45 240	829 249	509 114	320 135	18.3	11.3	7.1
1960	45 684	819 819	520 960	298 859	17.9	11.4	6.5
1961	46 163	838 633	500 289	338 344	18.2	10.8	7.3
1962	46 998	832 353	541 147	291 206	17.7	11.5	6.2
1963	47 816	868 876	557 852	311 024	18.2	11.7	6.5
1964	48 310	877 804	520 033	357 771	18.2	10.8	7.4
1965	48 758	865 688	543 696	321 992	17.8	11.2	6.6
1966	49 164	863 527	528 782	334 745	17.6	10.8	6.8
1967	49 548	840 568	543 033	297 535	17.0	11.0	6.0
1968	49 915	835 796	553 441	282 355	16.7	11.1	5.7
1969	50 318	842 245	573 335	268 910	16.7	11.4	5.3
1970	50 772	850 381	542 277	308 104	16.7	10.7	6.1
1971	51 251	881 284	554 151	327 133	17.2	10.8	6.4
1972	51 701	877 506	549 900	327 606	17.0	10.6	6.3
1973	52 118	857 186	558 782	298 404	16.4	10.7	5.7
1974	52 460	801 218	552 551	248 667	15.3	10.5	4.7
1975	52 699	745 065	560 353	184 712	14.1	10.6	3.5
1976	52 909	720 395	557 114	163 281	13.6	10.5	3.1
1977	53 145	744 744	536 221	208 523	14.0	10.1	3.9
1978	53 376	737 062	546 916	190 146	13.8	10.2	3.6
1979	53 606	757 354	541 805	215 549	14.1	10.1	4.0
1980	53 880	800 376	547 107	253 269	14.9	10.2	4.7
1981	54 182	805 483	554 823	250 660	14.9	10.2	4.6
1982	54 492	797 223	543 104	254 119	14.6	10.0	4.7
1983	54 772	748 525	559 655	188 870	13.7	10.2	3.4
1984	55 026	759 939	542 490	217 449	13.8	9.9	4.0
1985	55 284	768 431	552 496	215 935	13.9	10.0	3.9
1986	55 577	778 468	546 926	231 542	14.0	9.8	4.2
1987	55 824	767 828	527 466	240 362	13.8	9.4	4.3
1988	56 118	771 268	524 600	246 668	13.7	9.3	4.4
1989	56 423	765 473	529 283	236 190	13.6	9.4	4.2
1990	56 709	762 407	526 201	236 206	13.4	9.3	4.2
1991	56 976	759 056	524 685	234 371	13.3	9.2	4.1
1992	57 240	743 658	521 530	222 128	13.0	9.1	3.9
1993	57 467	711 610	532 263	179 347	12.4	9.3	3.1
1994	57 659	710 993	519 965	191 028	12.3	9.0	3.3
1995	57 844	729 609	531 618	197 991	12.6	9.2	3.4
1996	58 026	734 338	535 775	198 563	12.7	9.2	3.4
1997	58 207	726 768	530 319	196 449	12.5	9.1	3.4
1998	58 398	738 080	534 005	204 075	12.6	9.1	3.5
1999	58 661	744 791	537 661	207 130	12.7	9.2	3.5
2000	59 049	774 782	530 864	243 918	13.1	9.0	4.1
2001	59 477	770 945	531 073	239 872	13.0	8.9	4.0
2002	59 894	761 630	535 144	226 486	12.7	8.9	3.8
2003	60 304	761 464	552 339	209 125	12.6	9.2	3.5
2004	60 735	767 816	509 429	258 387	12.6	8.4	4.3
2005	61 182	774 355	527 533	246 822	12.7	8.6	4.0
2006	61 586	796 896	516 416	280 480	12.9	8.4	4.6
2007	61 939	785 985	521 016	264 969	12.7	8.4	4.3
2008	62 278	796 044	533 000	263 044	12.8	8.6	4.2
2009	62 621	793 420	538 116	255 304	12.7	8.6	4.1
2010 (e)	62 965	796 000	535 000	261 000	12.6	8.5	4.1

e=first estimate

Ethnic groups

The modern ethnic French are the descendants of Celts, Iberians, Ligurians and Greeks in southern France,^[12][13] later mixed with large group of Germanic peoples arriving at the end of the Roman Empire such as the Franks the Burgundians, Alamanni and Goths,^[14] very small portions of Moors and Saracens in the south,^{[15][16][17][18][19][20][21]} and Scandinavians, Vikings who became the Normans and settled mostly in Normandy in the 9th century.^[22][23]

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.^[24] Some organizations, such as the Representative Council of Black Associations (French: Conseil représentatif des associations noires de France, CRAN), have argued in favour of the introduction of data collection on minority groups but this has been resisted by other organizations and ruling politicians,^[25][26] often on the grounds that collecting such statistics goes against France's secular principles and harks back to Vichy-era identity documents.^[27] During the 2007 presidential election, however, Nicolas Sarkozy was polled on the issue and stated that he favoured the collection of data on ethnicity.^[28] 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.^[24]

Of European ethnic groups not indigenous to France, the most numerous are people of Italian family origin and it is estimated that about 5 million citizen (8% of the population) are at least partly of Italian origin if their parentage is retraced over three generations.^[29] This is due to waves of Italian immigration, notably during the late 19th century and early 20th century. Other large European groups of non-native origin are Spaniards, Portuguese, Polish, and Greeks. Also, due to more recent immigration, between five and six million people of Maghrebi origin^[30] and approximately 500,000 Turks inhabit France.^{[citation needed]} An influx of North African Jews immigrated to France in the 1950s 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 come from both the French overseas territories and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Solis, a marketing company, recently estimated the numbers for ethnic minorities (immigrants and 2nd generation) in France in 2009 as 3.26 million Maghrebis (5.23%), 1.83 million Black people (2.94%, 1.08 million Sub-Saharan Africans and 757,000 French from French West Indies) and 441,000 Turkish (0.71%) .^[31][32]

Immigration

Main article: Immigration to France

Before World War II

In the 20th 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.^[33]

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.^[34] 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.^[35] 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.^[36]

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 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)^{[citation needed]}. One million European pieds noirs also migrated from Algeria in 1962 and the following years, due to the chaotic independence of Algeria.^[37] 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.

Between 1956 and 1967, about 235.000 Sephardic North African Jews from Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco also immigrated to France due to the decline of the French empire and following the Six-Day War. Hence, by 1968, Sephardic North African Jews were the majority of the Jews in France. As these new immigrants were already culturally French they needed little time to adjust to French society.^[38]

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 1986 and 1993. 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 asylum seekers. Illegal immigration thus developed as immigration policy became more rigid. In 2006, The French Ministry of the Interior estimated clandestine immigrants in France amounted to anywhere between 200.000 and 400.000, also expecting between 80.000 and 100.000 people to enter the country illegally each year.^[39]

The Pasqua laws are a significant landmark in the shift in France’s immigration policy through the course of the 20th Century. They are a sign of the securitization aspect of immigration, giving more power to the police, allowing them to perform random identity checks and deport immigrants without legal papers. The rise in anti-immigration sentiments was reinforced by a series of terrorist bombs in Paris in 1986 which were linked to Muslim immigrants in France.^[40]

Tightening immigration laws such as these, as well as notions of "zero immigration", reflected national views that arose within the discussion around immigrant family reunification and national identity. Institut français des relations internationales (IFRI) immigration expert, Mr. Christophe Bertossi, states that "stigmatized as both a challenge to social cohesion and a “burden” for the French economy, family immigration is increasingly restricted and constructed as a racial issue. The “immigration choisie” policy strives consequently to select migrants according to their profile, skills and–though still indirectly–origins.^[41][42]

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.^[43]

The large-scale immigration from Islamic countries has sparked controversy in France. Nevertherless, according to Justin Vaïsse, in spite of obstacles and spectacular failures like the riots in November 2005, in Parisian suburbs, where many immigrants live secluded from society with very few capabilities to live in better conditions, the integration of Muslim immigrants is happening as part of a background evolution^[44] 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%.^[45] According to Emmanuel Todd the relatively high exogamy among French Algerians can be explained by the colonial link between France and Algeria.^[46][47] One illustration of this growing resentment and job insecurity can be drawn from related events, such as the 2005 riots, which ensued in former President Chirac declaring a state of emergency.^[48] Massive demonstrations to express frustration over unemployment took place in March 2009.^[49] The importance of integration was brought to the forefront of the political agenda in President Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign. Upon being elected, he symbolically created the French Ministry of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Codevelopment. Integration is one of the pillars of its political aims.^[50]

Today

As of 2008, the French national institute of statistics INSEE estimated that 11.8 million foreign-born immigrants and their direct descendants (born in France) lived in France representing 19% of the country's population. More than 5,5 million are of European origin and about 4 million of Maghrebi origin (20% of Algerian origin and 15% of Moroccan or Tunisian origin). Immigrants aged 18-50 count for 2.7 millions (10% of population aged 18-50) and 5 millions for all ages (8% of population). 2nd Generation aged 18-50 make up 3.1 millions (12% of 18-50) and 6.5 millions for all ages (11% of population)^[51][6]

The region with the largest proportion of immigrants is the Île-de-France (Greater Paris), where 40% of immigrants live. Other important regions are Rhône-Alpes (Lyon) and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (Marseille). The most important individual countries of origin as of 2007 were Algeria (702,000), Morocco (645,000), Portugal (576,000), Italy (323,000), Spain (262,000) and Turkey (234,000). However, immigration from Asia (especially China), as well as from sub-Saharan Africa (Senegal, Mali) is gaining in importance.

42% of the immigrants are from Africa (30% from Maghreb and 12% from Sub-Saharan Africa), 38% from Europe (mainly from Portugal, Italy and Spain), 14% from Asia and 5% from America and Oceania.^[6] Outside of Europe and North Africa, the highest rate of immigration is from Vietnam, Cambodia and Senegal.

Immigrants by country of origin (2007)	%	N
Africa	42.3	2 223 617
Algeria	13.4	702 811
Morocco	12.3	645 695
Tunisia	4.4	231 062
Sub-Saharan Africa	12.3	644 049
Europe	38.4	2 018 102
European Union	34.3	1 802 532
Spain	5.0	262 883
Italy	6.2	323 809
Portugal	11.0	576 084
UK	2.7	142 949
Other EU countries	9.5	496 807
Other European countries	4.1	215 570
Asia	14.0	735 863
Turkey	4.5	234 540
Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam	3.1	162 063
Other Asian countries	6.5	339 260
America, Oceania	5.2	275 114
Total	100	5 252 696

The top ten emigrant countries in 2008 (excluding member states of the European Economic Area) were:^[52]

Rank	Country	Immigrants
All nationalities (including 72,000 Europeans)		211,055
1	Algeria	23,605
2	Morocco	23,382
3	Poland	22,951
4	China	11,893
5	Tunisia	9,103
6	Turkey	7,607
7	Romania	4,922
8	Mali	4,535
9	Cameroon	3,913
10	United States	3,847

According to Michèle Tribalat, researcher at INED, there were, in 1999, approximately 14 million persons of foreign ancestry (about a quarter of the population), defined as either immigrants or people with at least one immigrant parent or grandparent. Half of them were of European ancestry (including 5.2 million from South Europe (Italy, Spain, Portugal and former Yugoslavia)). The rest were from Maghreb (3 million), Sub-saharan Africa (680,000), Turkey (320,000) and other parts of the world (2.5 million) .^[53] Immigrants from the Maghreb are commonly referred to as beur, a verlan slang term derived from the word arabe (French for Arab).^[54]

According to the distinguished French historian of immigration Gérard Noiriel, one third of the population currently living in France is of "foreign" descent.^[55]

In 2004, a total of 140,033 people immigrated to France. Of them, 90,250 were from Africa and 13,710 from Europe.^[56] In 2005, immigration level fell slightly to 135,890.^[57] The European Union allows free movement between the member states. While the UK (along with Ireland and Sweden, and non-EU members Norway and Switzerland) did not impose restrictions, France put in place controls to curb Eastern European migration.

As at 1 January 2006, INSEE estimates that the number of foreigners living in metropolitan France amounted to 3.5 million people. Two out of five foreigners are from Portugal, Algeria or Morocco. Thus EU nationals immigrating to France comprise 1.2 million people while 1.1 million people are from the three Maghreb countries of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. It is interesting to note that immigrants are concentrated in Île-de-France, Rhone-Alpes, Provence and Côte d’Azur regions, accounting for 60% of the total immigrant population. Furthermore, there appears to be a lower rate of immigrants arriving from the EU since 1975 as opposed to an increase in African immigrants.^[58]

In the first decade of the 21st century, the net migration rate was estimated to be 0.66 migrants per 1,000 population a year.^[59] 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. This trend is also demonstrated in anti-immigrant sentiments among the public. For example, the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C. conducted a public opinion poll in February 2004 among French nationals. This poll measured the extent of support for restricting immigration among French nationals, by age cohort. 24% of individuals ages 18–29 favored restricting immigration, 33% of individuals ages 30–49 were in favor and 53% of individuals ages 50–64 and 65 and over were in favor as well.^[60]

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.^[61]

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. One reason for this could be France’s relatively high unemployment, which the country has struggled to reduce for the past two decades. There is also a parallel dynamic between immigration and unemployment. Immigrants tend to be subjected to higher rates of unemployment: In 2008, the immigrant unemployment rate in France was a startling 13%, twice as high as for the national population (6%).^[62] One can further analyze this trend in relation to education. In the Ministry’s 2010 report on professional inclusion for immigrants, 19.6% of immigrants without any education were unemployed, while 16.1% of immigrants who had graduated high school were unemployed. Immigrants with an undergraduate degree or higher had only 11.4% unemployment.^[63]

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.^[64] 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.^[65]

The latest 2008 demographic statistics have been released, and France's birth and fertility rates have continued to rise. The fertility rate increased to 2.01 in 2010^[1] and for the first time approaches the fertility rate of the United States.^[66]

According to a recent genetic study in 2008, 28.45% of all newborns in mainland France in 2007 had at least one parent of immigrant origin from the following regions (Overseas departments and territories of France, Africa, North America, South America, Southern Europe : Portugal, Greece and South Italy, Near East and Middle East and the South Asia). The Paris metropolitan district (Île-de-France) is the region that accounts for the largest number with nearly 56% of all newborns in this area in 2007 having at least one parent of immigrant origin. The second largest number is in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur at nearly 42% and the lowest number is in Brittany at 4.40%.^[67]

Region	% of newborns with at least one parent of immigrant origin (2007)
Île-de-France	55.68
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur	41.91
Languedoc-Roussillon	34.78
Alsace	29.29
Midi-Pyrénées	27.77
Rhône-Alpes	27.67
Picardy	19.92
Franche-Comté	17.90
Burgundy	17.01
Lorraine	16.14
Champagne-Ardenne	15.36
Limousin	15.16
Nord-Pas-de-Calais	14.27
Centre Val de Loire	14.03
Auvergne	12.84
Aquitaine	12.29
Normandy	11.61
Pays de la Loire/Poitou-Charentes	11.20
Brittany	4.40
Metropolitan France	28.45

Maghrebis in France

French of Maghrebi origin in France form the largest ethnic group after French of European origin.

According to Michel Tribalat, a researcher at INED, there were 3.5 million people of Maghrebi origin (with at least one grandparent from Algeria, Morocco or Tunisia) living in France in 2005 corresponding to 5.8% of the total French metropolitan population (60.7 millions in 2005).^[68] Maghrebis have settled mainly in the industrial regions in France, especially in the Paris region. Many famous French people like Edith Piaf^[69], Isabelle Adjani, Arnaud Montebourg, Alain Bashung, Dany Boon and many others have Maghrebi ancestry.

Below is a table of population of Maghrebi origin in France, numbers are in thousands:

Country	1999	2005	% 1999/2005	% French population (60.7 millions in 2005)
Algeria	1,577	1,865	+18.3%	3.1%
Immigrants	574	679
Born in France	1,003	1,186
Morocco	1,005	1,201	+19.5%	2.0%
Immigrants	523	625
Born in France	482	576
Tunisia	417	458	+9.8%	0.8%
Immigrants	202	222
Born in France	215	236
Total Maghreb	2,999	3,524	+17.5%	5.8%
Immigrants	1 299	1 526		2.5%
Born in France	1 700	1 998		3.3%

In 2005, the percentage of young people under 18 of maghrebi origin (at least one immigrant parent) was about 7% in Metropolitan France, 12% in Greater Paris and above 20% in French département of Seine-Saint-Denis.^[70][71]

2005 %	Seine-Saint-Denis	Val-de-Marne	Val-d'Oise	Lyon	Paris	France
Total Maghreb	22.0%	13.2%	13.0%	13.0%	12.1%	6.9%

According to other sources between 5 and 6 million people of Maghrebin origin live in France corresponding to about 7-9% of the total French metropolitan population.^[72]

Immigration policy in France

As mentioned above, the French Ministry of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Codevelopment was created immediately following the appointment of Nicolas Sarkozy as President of France in 2007. Immigration in France has been a relevant political dimension in France’s agenda in recent years. President Sarkozy’s agenda has sharpened the focus placed on integration of immigrants living in France as well as their acquisition of national identity. The current state of immigration policy in France is fourfold. Its pillars of immigration policy are to regulate migratory flows in and out of France, facilitate immigrants’ integration and promote French identity, honor the French tradition’s principle of welcoming political asylum and promote solidarity within the immigrant population (principle of co-development).^[73] In its 2010 Budget report, the Ministry of Immigration declared it would fund €600 million for its immigration policy objectives, a figure representing 60 million more than in 2009 (otherwise an 11.5% increase from 2009 figures).^[63]

In July 2006, President Sarkozy put into effect a law on immigration based upon the notion of “chosen immigration”,^[74] which allows immigration into France to a restricted field of employment sectors, notably the hotel and restaurant industries, construction and seasonal employment. The following summer of 2007, President Sarkozy amended the law to also require the acquisition of the French language as a pre-condition. According to Mr. Christophe Bertossi, immigration expert in France’s Institut français des relations internationales (IFRI), “there is a dominant trend in the French policy to stem family migration, notably conditioned after the 2007 law by a minimum level of French language tested and by the demonstration that he/she endorses the main French constitutional principles”.^[75] It is also important to note that France, along with other EU countries, have still not signed their agreement to the United Nations Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families of 1990.^[76] This Convention is a treaty to protect migrant workers’ rights, in recognition of their human rights.

Alternative policies have been discussed in formulating immigration policy, such as a quota system. At the beginning of 2008, as the government was rethinking its orientation on immigration policy with the creation of the new Ministry, the idea of a quota system was introduced as a possible alternative. In early 2008, a proposal was made to Parliament to decide each year how many immigrants to accept, based on skill and origin. However, this quota policy contradicts the French Constitution. A Commission was formed in February 2008 to study how the Constitution could be changed to allow for a quota system. The main difficulty is the origin principle of establishing a quota “constituting a breach in the universalistic ideology of the French Republic”.^[41]

On January 18, 2008, the government published a list of 150 job titles that were encountering difficult supply of labor.^[77] Immigrants living in France today are reported to primarily cover the following sectors: agriculture, service to persons in need (childcare, the elderly), construction, education, health and services to businesses.^[78] Thus the government is seeking to match immigrants with the economic makeup of France. The current administration could also seek to integrate migrants and their families through education and training, making them more competitive in the job market.

Therefore the outlook towards immigrants in France is shifting as unemployment continues to dominate the political agenda, along with political incentives to strengthen French national identity. Recent incidents, such as the 2005 civil unrest in France and French Romani repatriation have shed light on France’s immigration policies and how these are viewed globally, especially in congruence or discontinuity with the EU. A longitudinal study has been conducted since March 2010 to provide qualitative research regarding the integration of new immigrants.^[79] This report is being finalized at the end of December 2010 and will be most relevant to provide insight into further immigration policy analysis for the French government.

Religion

Main article: Religion in France

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 did not believe in God; contrast with 20% in 1947.^[80] A study by the CSA Institute conducted in 2003 with a sample of 18,000 people found that 27% considered themselves atheists, and 65.3% Roman Catholic, while 12.7% (8,065,000 people) belonged to some other religion.

There are an estimated 5 million Muslims,^[81] one million Protestants, 491,000 Jews,^[82] 600,000 Buddhists, and 150,000 Orthodox Christians as of 2000 figures^{[citation needed]}. The last figure does not appear to include high numbers of Apostolic Armenians present in the Paris and Marseille conurbations. The US State Department's International Religious Freedom Report 2004 .^[83] estimated the French Hindu population at 181,312.

These studies did not ask the respondents if they were practicing or how often they did practice if they were active in the laity.

Fertility

France has a high fertility rate by European standards; this rate has increased after reaching a historic low in the early 1990s.

• Total fertility rate: 2.01 children born per woman for metropolitan France and the overseas departments (in 2010),^[1] 2.00 for metropolitan France alone (in 2010).^[84]
• Mean age of women having their first birth: 29.9 years-old.^[85]

The total fertility rates (TFR) for metropolitan France yearwise is given below. (Sources:^[86][87][88])

Year Births TFR 1960 819,951 2.74 1964 877,800 2.91 1970 850,381 2.48 1971 881,284 2.50 1972 877,506 2.42 1973 857,186 2.31 1974 801,218 2.11 1975 745,065 1.93

Year Births TFR 1980 800,376 1.95 1985 768,431 1.81 1990 762,407 1.78 1991 759,100 1.77 1992 743,658 1.73 1993 711,610 1.66 1994 710,993 1.66 1995 729,609 1.71

Year Births TFR 1996 734,338 1.73 1997 726,768 1.73 1998 738,080 1.76 1999 744,791 1.79 2000 774,782 1.87 2001 770,945 1.88 2002 761,630 1.86 2003 761,464 1.87

Year Births TFR 2004 767,816 1.90 2005 774,355 1.92 2006 796,896 1.98 2007 785,985 1.96 2008 796,000 1.99 2009 793,400 1.99 2010 797,000 2.00

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) and (2010)
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

In 2010, 27.3% of newborn in metropolitan France had at least one foreign-born parent and 23.9% had at least one parent born outside of Europe (parents born in overseas territories are considered as born in France).^[89].

The table below gives the number of children born in metropolitan France according to the place of birth of both parents.

Birth country of parents	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	% 2010
Both parents born in France	566 447	576 537	601 268	595 286	580 999	575 985	574 687	575 659	590 163	579 515	585 427	578 052	583 600	72.7%
One parent born in France, other foreign-born	101 511	98 687	101 498	102 013	103 930	106 677	110 258	114 090	119 159	119 587	121 845	125 058	129 025	16.1%
Father born in EU27, mother born in France	13 194	12 858	13 060	12 447	11 732	11 442	10 811	10 667	10 455	10 188	9 975	9 526	9 549	1.2%
Father not born in EU27, mother born in France	44 891	43 807	45 612	46 459	47 695	49 790	52 244	54 176	56 886	56 626	57 955	60 362	62 478	7.8%
Father born in France, Mother born in Eu27	13 020	12 647	12 411	11 881	11 439	11 119	10 930	10 827	10 794	10 575	10 562	10 585	10 418	1.3%
Father born in France, Mother not born in Eu27	30 406	29 375	30 415	31 226	33 064	34 326	36 273	38 420	41 024	42 198	43 353	44 585	46 580	5.8%
Both parents foreign-born	70 122	69 567	72 016	73 646	76 701	78 802	82 871	84 606	87 574	86 883	88 772	90 310	89 599	11.2%
Both parents born in Eu27	6 681	6 157	5 780	5 524	5 159	5 369	5 426	5 372	5 778	5 891	6 276	6 442	6 694	0.8%
Both parents not born in Eu27	60 281	60 636	63 299	65 406	68 788	70 552	74 537	76 348	78 700	78 020	79 405	80 641	79 698	9.9%
Father born in EU27, Mother not born in Eu27	1 188	1 047	1 116	1 035	1 038	1 075	1 150	1 100	1 256	1 190	1 226	1 268	1 258	0.2%
Father not born in EU27, Mother born in Eu27	1 972	1 727	1 821	1 681	1 716	1 806	1 758	1 786	1 840	1 782	1 865	1 959	1 949	0.2%
Total of newborns	738 080	744 791	774 782	770 945	761 630	761 464	767 816	774 355	796 896	785 985	796 044	793 420	802 224	100%

Languages

Main articles: Languages of France and French language

Education

Main article: Education in France

Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99%
male: 99%
female: 99% (2003 est.)^{[citation needed]}

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.

Population

total: 64,768,389

note: 62,814,233 in metropolitan

Age structure

0-14 years: 18.6% (male 6,129,729/female 5,838,925)

15-64 years: 65% (male 20,963,124/female 20,929,280)

65 years and over: 16.4% (male 4,403,248/female 6,155,767) (2010 est.)

Median age

total: 39.7 years

male: 38.2 years

female: 41.2 years (2010 est.)

Sex ratio

at birth: 1.051 male(s)/female

under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female

15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 0.72 male(s)/female

total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2010 est.)

Infant mortality rate

total: 3.31 deaths/1,000 live births

male: 3.63 deaths/1,000 live births

female: 2.98 deaths/1,000 live births (2010 est.)

Life expectancy at birth

total population: 81.09 years

male: 77.91 years

female: 84.44 years (2010 est.)

Total Fertility Rate

1.97 children born/woman (2010 est.)

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate

0.7% (2007 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS

150,000 (2007 est.)

Religions

According to a poll conducted in 2001 for French Catholic magazine La Croix, numbers are: Roman Catholic 69% (only 10% being listed as regular churchgoers), Agnostic or Atheist 22%, Protestant (Calvinist, Lutheran, Anglican and Evangelical) 2%, others are 7%.^[90]

According to CIA World Factbook the numbers are : Roman Catholic 83%-88%, Protestant 2%, Jewish 1%, Muslim 9%,^[91] unaffiliated 4%.^[92]

Languages

See also: Languages of France

French is the only official language of France, and is constitutionally required to be overwhelmingly the language of government and administration. There is a rising cultural awareness of the regional languages of France, which enjoy no official status. These regional languages include the Langue d'oïl, Langue d'oc, Romance languages other than French, Breton and Germanic languages. Immigrant groups from former French colonies and elsewhere have also brought their own languages.

Genetics

France has been influenced by the different human migrations that occurred throughout Europe over time. Prehistoric and Neolithic population movements could have influenced the genetic diversity of this country. A recent study in 2009 analysed 555 French individuals from 7 different regions in mainland France and found the following Y-DNA Haplogroups. The five main haplogroups are R1 (63.41%), E (11.41%), I (8.88%), J (7.97%) and G (5.16%). R1b (particularly R1b1b2) was found to be the most dominant Y chromosomal lineage in France, covering about 60% of the Y chromosomal lineages. The high frequency of this haplogroup is typical in all West European populations. Haplogroups I and G are also characteristic markers for many different West European populations. Haplogroups J and E1b1b (M35, M78, M81 and M34) consist of lineages with differential distribution within Middle East, North Africa and Europe. Only adults with French surnames were analyzed by the study.^[93][94]

Region	Nb	BD	E*	E-M35*	E-M78	E-M81	E-M34	G	I	J1	J2	K	N1c	P*	R1a	R1b1	T
1 Alsace	80	0	0	0	6.25	0	3.75	2.50	8.75	1.25	8.75	1.25	0	0	3.75	58.75	5
2 Auvergne	89	0	2.25	0	3.37	5.62	1.12	8.99	4.49	3.37	7.87	1.12	0	0	5.62	52.80	3.37
3 Brittany	115	0	0	0	0	0	0	1.74	13.04	0.87	2.61	0	0	0	0.87	80.88	0
4 Île-de-France	91	0	10.99	0	4.40	5.49	1.10	4.40	7.69	1.10	5.49	0	1.10	0	2.20	56.05	0
5 Midi-Pyrénées	67	0	1.49	1.49	2.99	1.49	1.49	4.48	10.45	4.48	7.46	0	0	0	2.99	59.69	1.49
6 Nord-Pas-de-Calais	68	0	1.47	1.47	5.88	4.41	0	7.35	8.82	0	5.88	0	0	0	2.94	61.76	0
7 Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur	45	2.22	0	2.22	8.89	2.22	0	6.67	8.89	0	6.67	0	0	4.44	0	55.55	2.22
Mainland France	555	0.32	2.31	0.74	4.54	2.75	1.07	5.16	8.88	1.58	6.39	0.34	0.16	0.63	2.62	60.78	1.73

See also

• French people - officially a nationality, also discusses overseas French descendants.
• List of French people of immigrant origin
• List of French people
• Racism by country - Racism in Europe - Article on race relations in France
• List of fifteen largest French metropolitan areas by population
• INSEE code
• Pied-noirs, the name for French settlers in Algeria
• Franco-Mauritian
• Caldoches
• Population of Paris
• Jews in France
• French immigration to Puerto Rico
• French Canadian
• French American
• Roma in France

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} INSEE, Government of France. "Bilan démographique 2010". http://www.insee.fr/fr/themes/document.asp?ref_id=ip1332#inter1. Retrieved 2011-02-08.  (French)
2. ^ ^{a b} INSEE, Government of France. "Population totale par sexe et âge au 1er janvier 2011, France métropolitaine". http://www.insee.fr/fr/themes/detail.asp?ref_id=bilan-demo&page=donnees-detaillees/bilan-demo/pop_age2.htm. Retrieved 2011-02-08.  (French)
3. ^ For Pieds-Noirs, the Anger Endures
4. ^ Insee - Topics
5. ^ Être né en France d’un parent immigré, Insee Première, n°1287, mars 2010, Catherine Borrel et Bertrand Lhommeau, Insee
6. ^ ^{a b c} Répartition des immigrés par pays de naissance 2008, Insee, October 2011
7. ^ "France has a baby boom". International Herald Tribune. 2005. http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/05/13/news/france.php. Retrieved 2007-12-15. 
8. ^ Doughty, Steve (2009-03-12). "UK to have Europe's biggest population: Migration will force us ahead of Germany, says UN". Daily Mail (London). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1161365/UK-Europes-biggest-population-Migration-force-ahead-Germany-says-UN.html. 
9. ^ INSEE, La population des régions en 2040, http://www.insee.fr/fr/themes/document.asp?ref_id=ip1326, retrieved 2011-03-06 
10. ^ According to the table File:Turkey-demography.png
11. ^ INSEE
12. ^ 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
13. ^ 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
14. ^ http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?ParagraphID=ekw
15. ^ "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
16. ^ "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
17. ^ "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. À 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
18. ^ " 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
19. ^ "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
20. ^ "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
21. ^ "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
22. ^ The normans Jersey heritage trust
23. ^ 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
24. ^ ^{a b} Oppenheimer, David B. (2008). "Why France needs to collect data on racial identity...in a French way". Hastings International and Comparative Law Review 31 (2): 735–752. SSRN 1236362. 
25. ^ Louis-Georges, Tin (2008). "Who is afraid of Blacks in France? The Black question: The name taboo, the number taboo". French Politics, Culture & Society 26 (1): 32–44. doi:10.3167/fpcs.2008.260103. 
26. ^ "Black residents of France say they are discriminated against". International Herald Tribune. 2007-01-31. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/world/europe/31iht-bias.4421757.html. Retrieved 2009-10-27. 
27. ^ "France's ethnic minorities: To count or not to count". The Economist 390 (8624): 62. 2009-03-28. http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displayStory.cfm?story_id=E1_TPPSSPNQ. 
28. ^ Chrisafis, Angelique (2007-02-24). "French presidential candidates divided over race census". The Guardian (London): p. 25. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/feb/24/france.population. Retrieved 2009-10-27. 
29. ^ The Cambridge survey of world migration - Google Books
30. ^ "Les personnes d'origine maghrébine y sont également au nombre de 5 à 6 millions ; 3,5 millions ont la nationalité française (dont 500 000 harkis)", Robert Castel, La discrimination négative, Paris, La République des idées/Seuil, 2007
31. ^ France's crisis of national identity, The Independent, Wednesday, 25 November 2009
32. ^ Les personnes originaires d’Afrique, des Dom-Tom et de la Turquie sont 5,5 millions dans l’Hexagone, Afrik.com, 12 February 2009
33. ^ Hargreaves, Alec G., Multi-Ethnic France, Routledge, New York, New York, 2007, 265 pages, pages 16-17
34. ^ ["Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. III. French Government and the Refugees". American Philosophical Society, James E. Hassell (1991). p.22. ISBN 0-87169-817-X
35. ^ Spanish Civil War fighters look back, BBC News, February 23, 2003
36. ^ Enzo Barnabà, Le sang des marais, Marseille, 1993
37. ^ On French immigrants, the words left unsaid
38. ^ Esther Benbassa, The Jews of France: A History from Antiquity to the Present, Princeton University Press, 1999
39. ^ RFI - Immigration - Combien d’immigrés clandestins en France?
40. ^ Freedman, Jane, Immigration and Insecurity in France, Ashgate Publishing Limited, Hants, England, 2004, 182 pages, page 42
41. ^ ^{a b} Bertossi, Christophe, France: the state strives to shape “chosen immigration”, IFRI, Paris, July 2008
42. ^ http://ifri.org/?page=detail-contribution&id=5235&id_provenance=103&provenance_context_id=12 page 1
43. ^ Smith, Craig S. Face behind Paris 'bistro' counter becomes Asian. International Herald Tribune, 10 May 2005.
44. ^ 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
45. ^ "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
46. ^ Emmanuel Todd, Le destin des immigrés: assimilation et ségrégation dans les démocraties occidentales, Paris, 1994, p.307
47. ^ 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.
48. ^ Smith, Craig S. (2005-11-05). "Immigrant Rioting Flares in France for Ninth Night". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/05/international/europe/05france.html. 
49. ^ "French unions claim 3m on street". BBC News. 2009-03-19. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7951949.stm. 
50. ^ Intégration et identité nationale - Immigration.gouv.fr
51. ^ Être né en France d’un parent immigré, Insee Première, n°1287, mars 2010, Catherine Borrel et Bertrand Lhommeau, Insee
52. ^ INED
53. ^ Michèle Tribalat's 2004 study for the INED
54. ^ Valdman, Albert (2000-05). "La Langue des faubourgs et des banlieues: de l'argot au français populaire". The French Review (American Association of Teachers of French) 73 (6): 1188. JSTOR 399371. 
55. ^ "Immigration is hardly a recent development in French history, as Gérard Noiriel amply demonstrates in his history of French immigration, The French Melting Pot. Noiriel estimates that one third of the population currently living in France is of "foreign" descent", Marie-Christine Weidmann-Koop, France at the dawn of the twenty-first century, trends and transformations, Summa Publications, Inc., 2000, p.160
56. ^ Inflow of third-country nationals by country of nationality
57. ^ Immigration and the 2007 French Presidential Elections
58. ^ http://www.immigration.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/IM10popetrangere06.pdf
59. ^ CIA - The World Factbook
60. ^ Schain, Martin A., The politics of immigration in France, Britain, and the United States, a comparative study, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, New York, 2008, 329 pages page 9
61. ^ Insee - Population - Natalité et fécondité au sein de l'Union européenne
62. ^ Insee - Travail-Emploi - Nombre de chômeurs et taux de chômage des immigrés et des non-immigrés selon le sexe et l'âge
63. ^ ^{a b} European Web Site on Integration
64. ^ UK Office for National Statistics estimate
65. ^ INSEE pdf estimates
66. ^ Insee - Population - Évolution de la natalité et de la fécondité
67. ^ Bardakdjian-Michau, M Bahuau, D Hurtrel, et al.2008, Neonatal screening for sickle cell disease in France, J Clin Pathol 2009 62: 31-33, doi:10.1136/jcp.2008.058867
68. ^ Michèle Tribalat , « Mariages « mixtes » et immigration en France », Espace populations sociétés [En ligne] , 2009/2 | 2009 , mis en ligne le 01 avril 2011
69. ^ Carolyn Burke. No Regrets: The Life of Edith Piaf, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011, p.5
70. ^ Michèle Tribalat, Revue Commentaire, juin 2009, n°127
71. ^ Michèle Tribalat, Les yeux grands fermés, Denoël, 2010
72. ^ Robert Castel, La discrimination négative, Paris, La République des idées/Seuil, 2007
73. ^ Ministère de l’intérieur, de l’outre-mer, des collectivités territoriales et de l’immigration
74. ^ Immigration - Immigration.gouv.fr
75. ^ IFRI - E-note - Notes de l'Ifri - France: the State strives to shape "chosen" immigration - Institut français des relations internationales
76. ^ International Migration Convention | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
77. ^ Immigration - Immigration.gouv.fr
78. ^ Infos Migrations, Number 14, February 2010
79. ^ Ressources - Immigration.gouv.fr
80. ^ http://www.ifop.com/europe/sondages/opinionf/croyances.asp
81. ^ 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
82. ^ The Jewish Population of the World
83. ^ International Religious Freedom
84. ^ INSEE, Government of France. "Tableau complémentaire 2 : Taux de fécondité par groupe d'âges". http://www.insee.fr/fr/ffc/ipweb/ip1332/ip1332.xls=Tabc2. Retrieved 2011-01-19.  (French)
85. ^ INSEE, Government of France. "Bilan démographique 2008". http://www.insee.fr/fr/themes/document.asp?ref_id=IP1220&reg_id=0. Retrieved 2009-01-13.  (French)
86. ^ http://www.insee.fr/fr/ppp/bases-de-donnees/irweb/sd20071/dd/excel/sd20071_t34_fm.xls
87. ^ http://www.insee.fr/fr/ffc/ipweb/ip1332/ip1332.xls
88. ^ http://www.insee.fr/fr/ffc/ipweb/ip1220/ip1220.xls
89. ^ Naissances selon le pays de naissance des parents 2010, Insee, septembre 2011
90. ^ "Catholicisme et protestantisme en France: Analyses sociologiques et données de l'Institut CSA pour La Croix". Institut CSA & La Croix. 2001.12.24. http://www.csa-fr.com/dataset/data2001/catholiques.pdf. 
91. ^ http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2007/
92. ^ CIA World Factbook - France
93. ^ Ramos-Luisa et al. (2009), "Phylogeography of French male lineages (supplemental data from 23rd International ISFG Congress held from September 14 to 18, 2009 in Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires)", Forensic Science International 2: 439-441, doi:doi:10.1016/j.fsigss.2009.09.026
94. ^ "Sample collection was performed drawing blood of unrelated male individuals with French surname after informed consent", Ramos-Luisa et al. (2009)

External links

• Inflow of third-country nationals by country of nationality, by year
• Demographic Profile France: Liberté, Égalité, Fertilité - Allianz Knowledge Site, February 2008
• (French) Audio book (mp3) - Introduction and first chapter of Éric Maurin's book Le ghetto français, enquête sur le séparatisme social
• (French) Population of French communes with more than 2,000 inhabitants
• (French) Une question de la seconde génération en France - Le rôle de l’école dans la formation d’une identité minoritaire, par Patrick Simon
• France opens first museum dedicated to the history of immigration - Networkeurope.org
• Population cartogram of France
• Immigration expert Mr. Patrick Weil, has written extensively on the topic and is a well-respected intellectual voice in France.
• French immigration motives in numbers, INSEE
• Ministerial webpage
• Population statistics, INSEE webpage
• Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Migration office
• Official migration reports, immigration.gouv.fr