How many people speak French in the world?
French remains the 5th most widely spoken language in the world (after English, Chinese, Hindi and Spanish).
According to the 2022 report of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), 321 million people speak French in the world.
54.7% of French speakers live in Africa
The OIF states that despite a decline in the number of learners of French in Europe, the overall number of speakers is rising, largely because of its presence in African countries: of the 212 million who use French daily, 54.7% are living in Africa.
Not so many real French speakers
The OIF figures have been contested as being inflated due to the methodology used and its overly broad definition of the word francophone. According to the authors of a 2017 book on the world distribution of the French language, a credible estimate of the number of “francophones réels” (real francophones), that is, individuals who speak French on a daily basis either as their mother tongue or as a second language, would be around 130 million.
French as a foreign language is a hit!
As a foreign language, French is the 2nd most learned language language in the world by more than 50 million people in the world.
As in 2018, the number of French language learners worldwide slightly exceeded 51 million for pupils in primary, secondary and high schools, and higher education public, as well as in institutes or foreign language centres outside the school system.
The predominance of the North Africa-Middle East region continues, with maintained with 44% of French as a foreign language learners in education systems, followed by Sub-Saharan Africa-Indian Ocean (25%), Europe (19%), the Americas-Caribbean (9%) and Asia-Oceania (3%).
About the author: Anthony Lucas
Hi there! I’ve been a French teacher since 2007. I have taught French as a foreign language to hundreds of students from all over the world in Mexico, Australia, Hong Kong and France.
➜ I now teach French online and develop the website OnlineFrenchTeacher.com.