The number of people living on French territory who were born abroad has increased steadily since 2010. That year, the number of people born outside France was approximately *** million. The 2015 refugee crisis did not change the curve, with the number of people born abroad increasing linearly over the years throughout the decade of 2010. In 2023, this number was **** million.

France - Foreign-born population was 9328900.00 in December of 2024, according to the EUROSTAT. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for France - Foreign-born population - last updated from the EUROSTAT on June of 2025. Historically, France - Foreign-born population reached a record high of 9328900.00 in December of 2024 and a record low of 7309986.00 in December of 2010.

In 2025, the Ile-de-France region, sometimes called the Paris region, was the most populous in France. It is located in the northern part of France, divided into eight departments and crossed by the Seine River. The region contains Paris, its large suburbs, and several rural areas. The total population in metropolitan France was estimated at around ** million inhabitants. In the DOM (Overseas Department), France had more than *** million citizens spread over the islands of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion, Mayotte, and the South American territory of French Guiana. Ile-de-France: the most populous region in France According to the source, more than ** million French citizens lived in the Ile-de-France region. Ile-de-France was followed by Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Occitanie region which is in the Southern part of the country. Ile-de-France is not only the most populated region in France, it is also the French region with the highest population density. In 2020, there were ******* residents per square kilometer in Ile-de-France compared to ***** for Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, the second most populated region in France. More than two million people were living in the city of Paris in 2025. Thus, the metropolitan area outside the city of Paris, called the suburbs or banlieue in French, had more than ten million inhabitants. Ile-de-France concentrates the majority of the country’s economic and political activities. An urban population In 2024, the total population of France amounted to over 68 million. The population in the country has increased since the mid-2000s. As well as the other European countries, France is experiencing urbanization. In 2023, more than ** percent of the French population lived in cities. This phenomenon shapes France’s geography.

France FR: International Migrant Stock: Total data was reported at 7,784,418.000 Person in 2015. This records an increase from the previous number of 7,196,481.000 Person for 2010. France FR: International Migrant Stock: Total data is updated yearly, averaging 5,925,043.500 Person from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2015, with 12 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 7,784,418.000 Person in 2015 and a record low of 3,507,213.000 Person in 1960. France FR: International Migrant Stock: Total data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s France – Table FR.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. International migrant stock is the number of people born in a country other than that in which they live. It also includes refugees. The data used to estimate the international migrant stock at a particular time are obtained mainly from population censuses. The estimates are derived from the data on foreign-born population--people who have residence in one country but were born in another country. When data on the foreign-born population are not available, data on foreign population--that is, people who are citizens of a country other than the country in which they reside--are used as estimates. After the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 people living in one of the newly independent countries who were born in another were classified as international migrants. Estimates of migrant stock in the newly independent states from 1990 on are based on the 1989 census of the Soviet Union. For countries with information on the international migrant stock for at least two points in time, interpolation or extrapolation was used to estimate the international migrant stock on July 1 of the reference years. For countries with only one observation, estimates for the reference years were derived using rates of change in the migrant stock in the years preceding or following the single observation available. A model was used to estimate migrants for countries that had no data.; ; United Nations Population Division, Trends in Total Migrant Stock: 2012 Revision.; Sum;

During the eighteenth century, it is estimated that France's population grew by roughly fifty percent, from 19.7 million in 1700, to 29 million by 1800. In France itself, the 1700s are remembered for the end of King Louis XIV's reign in 1715, the Age of Enlightenment, and the French Revolution. During this century, the scientific and ideological advances made in France and across Europe challenged the leadership structures of the time, and questioned the relationship between monarchial, religious and political institutions and their subjects. France was arguably the most powerful nation in the world in these early years, with the second largest population in Europe (after Russia); however, this century was defined by a number of costly, large-scale conflicts across Europe and in the new North American theater, which saw the loss of most overseas territories (particularly in North America) and almost bankrupted the French crown. A combination of regressive taxation, food shortages and enlightenment ideologies ultimately culminated in the French Revolution in 1789, which brought an end to the Ancien Régime, and set in motion a period of self-actualization.

War and peace

After a volatile and tumultuous decade, in which tens of thousands were executed by the state (most infamously: guillotined), relative stability was restored within France as Napoleon Bonaparte seized power in 1799, and the policies of the revolution became enforced. Beyond France's borders, the country was involved in a series of large scale wars for two almost decades, and the First French Empire eventually covered half of Europe by 1812. In 1815, Napoleon was defeated outright, the empire was dissolved, and the monarchy was restored to France; nonetheless, a large number of revolutionary and Napoleonic reforms remained in effect afterwards, and the ideas had a long-term impact across the globe. France experienced a century of comparative peace in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars; there were some notable uprisings and conflicts, and the monarchy was abolished yet again, but nothing on the scale of what had preceded or what was to follow. A new overseas colonial empire was also established in the late 1800s, particularly across Africa and Southeast Asia. Through most of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, France had the second largest population in Europe (after Russia), however political instability and the economic prioritization of Paris meant that the entire country did not urbanize or industrialize at the same rate as the other European powers. Because of this, Germany and Britain entered the twentieth century with larger populations, and other regions, such as Austria or Belgium, had overtaken France in terms of industrialization; the German annexation of Alsace-Lorraine in the Franco-Prussian War was also a major contributor to this.

World Wars and contemporary France

Coming into the 1900s, France had a population of approximately forty million people (officially 38 million* due to to territorial changes), and there was relatively little growth in the first half of the century. France was comparatively unprepared for a large scale war, however it became one of the most active theaters of the First World War when Germany invaded via Belgium in 1914, with the ability to mobilize over eight million men. By the war's end in 1918, France had lost almost 1.4 million in the conflict, and approximately 300,000 in the Spanish Flu pandemic that followed. Germany invaded France again during the Second World War, and occupied the country from 1940, until the Allied counter-invasion liberated the country during the summer of 1944. France lost around 600,000 people in the course of the war, over half of which were civilians. Following the war's end, the country experienced a baby boom, and the population grew by approximately twenty million people in the next fifty years (compared to just one million in the previous fifty years). Since the 1950s, France's economy quickly grew to be one of the strongest in the world, despite losing the vast majority of its overseas colonial empire by the 1970s. A wave of migration, especially from these former colonies, has greatly contributed to the growth and diversity of France's population today, which stands at over 65 million people in 2020.

Of the 68 million people living in France in 2023, more than 59 million were born French. Three million have acquired French nationality through an application for naturalization. The rest of the residents in France are foreigners, among them, there are foreigners with legal status such as European residents and foreigners with specific status or awaiting regularization.

IPUMS-International is an effort to inventory, preserve, harmonize, and disseminate census microdata from around the world. The project has collected the world's largest archive of publicly available census samples. The data are coded and documented consistently across countries and over time to facillitate comparative research. IPUMS-International makes these data available to qualified researchers free of charge through a web dissemination system. The IPUMS project is a collaboration of the Minnesota Population Center, National Statistical Offices, and international data archives. Major funding is provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Additional support is provided by the University of Minnesota Office of the Vice President for Research, the Minnesota Population Center, and Sun Microsystems.

France FR: International Migrant Stock: % of Population data was reported at 12.088 % in 2015. This records an increase from the previous number of 11.430 % for 2010. France FR: International Migrant Stock: % of Population data is updated yearly, averaging 10.787 % from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2015, with 6 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 12.088 % in 2015 and a record low of 10.356 % in 1990. France FR: International Migrant Stock: % of Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s France – Table FR.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. International migrant stock is the number of people born in a country other than that in which they live. It also includes refugees. The data used to estimate the international migrant stock at a particular time are obtained mainly from population censuses. The estimates are derived from the data on foreign-born population--people who have residence in one country but were born in another country. When data on the foreign-born population are not available, data on foreign population--that is, people who are citizens of a country other than the country in which they reside--are used as estimates. After the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 people living in one of the newly independent countries who were born in another were classified as international migrants. Estimates of migrant stock in the newly independent states from 1990 on are based on the 1989 census of the Soviet Union. For countries with information on the international migrant stock for at least two points in time, interpolation or extrapolation was used to estimate the international migrant stock on July 1 of the reference years. For countries with only one observation, estimates for the reference years were derived using rates of change in the migrant stock in the years preceding or following the single observation available. A model was used to estimate migrants for countries that had no data.; ; United Nations Population Division, Trends in Total Migrant Stock: 2008 Revision.; Weighted average;

In 2024, the net migration rate in France reached 152,000. In recent years Europe and France have seen more people arrive than depart. The net migration rate is the difference between the number of immigrants (people coming into an area) and the number of emigrants (people leaving an area) throughout the year. France's highest net migration rate was reached in 2018 when it amounted to 201,000. Armed conflicts and economic migration are some of the reasons for immigration in Europe. The refugee crisis Studies have shown that there were 331,000 immigrant arrivals in France in 2022, which has risen since 2014. The migrant crisis, which began in 2015 in Europe, had an impact on the migration entry flows not only in France but in all European countries. The number of illegal border crossings to the EU over the Eastern Mediterranean route reached a record number of 885,386 crossings in 2015. Immigration in France Since the middle of the 19th century, France has attracted immigrants, first from European countries (like Poland, Spain, and Italy), and then from the former French colonies. In 2023, there were approximately 8.9 million people foreign-born in France. Most of them were living in the Ile-de-France region, which contains Paris, and in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur in the Southeastern part of the country. In 2022, the majority of immigrants arriving in France were from Africa and Europe.

This graph represents the share of the immigrant population in France from 1921 to 2023. The statistic reveals that the share of immigrants in France had slightly increased since 1921. There were 6.6 percent of immigrants in 1931 compared to 10.7 percent in 2023.

France FR: Population: Total data was reported at 67,118,648.000 Person in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 66,859,768.000 Person for 2016. France FR: Population: Total data is updated yearly, averaging 58,009,594.000 Person from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 67,118,648.000 Person in 2017 and a record low of 46,814,237.000 Person in 1960. France FR: Population: Total data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s France – Table FR.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Total population is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship. The values shown are midyear estimates.; ; (1) United Nations Population Division. World Population Prospects: 2017 Revision. (2) Census reports and other statistical publications from national statistical offices, (3) Eurostat: Demographic Statistics, (4) United Nations Statistical Division. Population and Vital Statistics Reprot (various years), (5) U.S. Census Bureau: International Database, and (6) Secretariat of the Pacific Community: Statistics and Demography Programme.; Sum; Relevance to gender indicator: disaggregating the population composition by gender will help a country in projecting its demand for social services on a gender basis.

French Polynesia PF: International Migrant Stock: % of Population data was reported at 10.630 % in 2015. This records a decrease from the previous number of 11.803 % for 2010. French Polynesia PF: International Migrant Stock: % of Population data is updated yearly, averaging 12.725 % from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2015, with 6 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 13.178 % in 1995 and a record low of 10.630 % in 2015. French Polynesia PF: International Migrant Stock: % of Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s French Polynesia – Table PF.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. International migrant stock is the number of people born in a country other than that in which they live. It also includes refugees. The data used to estimate the international migrant stock at a particular time are obtained mainly from population censuses. The estimates are derived from the data on foreign-born population--people who have residence in one country but were born in another country. When data on the foreign-born population are not available, data on foreign population--that is, people who are citizens of a country other than the country in which they reside--are used as estimates. After the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 people living in one of the newly independent countries who were born in another were classified as international migrants. Estimates of migrant stock in the newly independent states from 1990 on are based on the 1989 census of the Soviet Union. For countries with information on the international migrant stock for at least two points in time, interpolation or extrapolation was used to estimate the international migrant stock on July 1 of the reference years. For countries with only one observation, estimates for the reference years were derived using rates of change in the migrant stock in the years preceding or following the single observation available. A model was used to estimate migrants for countries that had no data.; ; United Nations Population Division, Trends in Total Migrant Stock: 2008 Revision.; Weighted average;

The indicator represents the share of immigrants in the population. According to the INSEE definition, an immigrant is a foreign-born person residing in France. People born French abroad and living in France are therefore not counted. Conversely, some immigrants were able to become French, the others remaining foreign. Foreign and immigrant populations are not completely confused: an immigrant is not necessarily a foreigner and conversely, some foreigners were born in France (mainly minors). The quality of an immigrant is permanent: an individual continues to belong to the immigrant population even if he becomes French by acquisition. It is the country of birth, not nationality at birth, that defines the geographical origin of an immigrant. Source: Observatory of Territories, https://www.observatoire-des-territoires.gouv.fr/part-des-immigres-dans-la-population

France FR: Birth Rate: Crude: per 1000 People data was reported at 11.700 Ratio in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 12.000 Ratio for 2015. France FR: Birth Rate: Crude: per 1000 People data is updated yearly, averaging 13.800 Ratio from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2016, with 57 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 18.700 Ratio in 1961 and a record low of 11.700 Ratio in 2016. France FR: Birth Rate: Crude: per 1000 People data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s France – Table FR.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Crude birth rate indicates the number of live births occurring during the year, per 1,000 population estimated at midyear. Subtracting the crude death rate from the crude birth rate provides the rate of natural increase, which is equal to the rate of population change in the absence of migration.; ; (1) United Nations Population Division. World Population Prospects: 2017 Revision. (2) Census reports and other statistical publications from national statistical offices, (3) Eurostat: Demographic Statistics, (4) United Nations Statistical Division. Population and Vital Statistics Reprot (various years), (5) U.S. Census Bureau: International Database, and (6) Secretariat of the Pacific Community: Statistics and Demography Programme.; Weighted average;

France FR: Population: Growth data was reported at 0.386 % in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 0.399 % for 2016. France FR: Population: Growth data is updated yearly, averaging 0.570 % from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1.412 % in 1962 and a record low of 0.079 % in 1991. France FR: Population: Growth data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s France – Table FR.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Annual population growth rate for year t is the exponential rate of growth of midyear population from year t-1 to t, expressed as a percentage . Population is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship.; ; Derived from total population. Population source: (1) United Nations Population Division. World Population Prospects: 2017 Revision, (2) Census reports and other statistical publications from national statistical offices, (3) Eurostat: Demographic Statistics, (4) United Nations Statistical Division. Population and Vital Statistics Reprot (various years), (5) U.S. Census Bureau: International Database, and (6) Secretariat of the Pacific Community: Statistics and Demography Programme.; Weighted average;

This statistic shows the population distribution in France on January 1st, 2025, by age group. In 2025, people aged under 15 accounted for 16.7 percent of the total French population, whereas around 10 percent of the population were 75 years and older. By comparison, the number of members of the population over the age of 65 years has increased even more prominently, reaching 14.57 million in 2025. The number of people living in France has been steadily increasing since 1982, exceeding 68 million in 2025, having thus grown by seven percent during that time.

In 2020, there was an average of 344.7 inhabitants per square kilometer on the island of La Réunion, a French overseas region. It was in fact the most densely populated of the overseas regions, followed by Martinique and Guadeloupe. In contrast, there were only 3.4 inhabitants per square kilometer in French Guiana. In the same year, La Réunion, Martinique and Guadeloupe were the three most densely populated French regions after Île-de-France (1,021.6 inhabitants per square kilometer), while Guyane was at the bottom of the ranking.

France FR: Death Rate: Crude: per 1000 People data was reported at 8.800 Ratio in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 8.900 Ratio for 2015. France FR: Death Rate: Crude: per 1000 People data is updated yearly, averaging 9.500 Ratio from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2016, with 57 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 11.400 Ratio in 1960 and a record low of 8.300 Ratio in 2007. France FR: Death Rate: Crude: per 1000 People data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s France – Table FR.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Crude death rate indicates the number of deaths occurring during the year, per 1,000 population estimated at midyear. Subtracting the crude death rate from the crude birth rate provides the rate of natural increase, which is equal to the rate of population change in the absence of migration.; ; (1) United Nations Population Division. World Population Prospects: 2017 Revision. (2) Census reports and other statistical publications from national statistical offices, (3) Eurostat: Demographic Statistics, (4) United Nations Statistical Division. Population and Vital Statistics Reprot (various years), (5) U.S. Census Bureau: International Database, and (6) Secretariat of the Pacific Community: Statistics and Demography Programme.; Weighted average;

As of 2020, individuals under 14 years of age were the largest age group in La Réunion and in French Guiana, with 22.3 and 32.6 percent of the population, respectively. In Guadeloupe and Martinique, people between 45 and 59 years of age were the most numerous, with 23.2 and 24.3 percent of the population, respectively. In these two regions, the population has been slightly increasing in recent years, while the population of French Guiana has increased sixfold in five decades, and that of La Réunion has doubled.

France FR: Labour Force With Basic Education: % of Total Working-age Population data was reported at 24.261 % in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 24.282 % for 2016. France FR: Labour Force With Basic Education: % of Total Working-age Population data is updated yearly, averaging 29.838 % from Dec 1998 (Median) to 2017, with 20 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 31.442 % in 1998 and a record low of 24.261 % in 2017. France FR: Labour Force With Basic Education: % of Total Working-age Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s France – Table FR.World Bank: Labour Force. The percentage of the working age population with a basic level of education who are in the labor force. Basic education comprises primary education or lower secondary education according to the International Standard Classification of Education 2011 (ISCED 2011).; ; International Labour Organization, ILOSTAT database. Data retrieved in September 2018.; Weighted average;