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France
Official language: French
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Demographics of France
With an estimated population of 65.1 million people, France is the 19th most populous country in the world.
Most of the population from immigrant stock is of European descent (mainly from Italy, Spain, and Portugal as well as Poland, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, and the former Yugoslavia) although France has a sizeable population of Arabs and Africans from its former colonies, the proportion of immigrants in France is on par with other European nations such as the United Kingdom (8%), Germany (9%), the Netherlands (18%), Sweden (13%) and Switzerland (19%).
Languages
According to Article 2 of the Constitution, French is the sole official language of France since 1992. This makes France the only Western European nation (excluding microstates) to have only one officially recognised language. However, 77 regional languages are also spoken, in metropolitan France as well as in the overseas departments and territories. Other languages, such as Portuguese, Italian, Maghrebi Arabic and several Berber languages are spoken by immigrants. Rapidly declining regional dialects and languages (Provencal, Breton, Alsatian, Corsican, Catalan, Basque, Flemish).
French National Institutions for Language
Délégation générale à la langue française et aux langues de France
Xavier North, Délégué général
Jean-François Baldi, Délégue adjoint
6, rue des Pyramides, 75001 Paris, France
+33-1-40157300
xavier.north@culture.gouv.fr
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