Who Speaks French?

How much do you know about the French language? Who speaks it and where do they live? If you’re up for a translation challenge, this article provides some interesting insights. Or, if you want to take the easy route, we’ve pulled out the key facts below.

But before you take a peek, can you deviner* how many Francophones there are around the world? If it helps, the total number of English speakers is environ* 1.5 billion…

Drapeau de la francophonie

French is…

• The official language of 30 countries. This represents more than 300 million people, half of whom live in Africa.

• The world's fifth-most spoken language after Mandarin, English, Spanish and Arabic or Hindi.

• The only language spoken on 5 continents (besides English).

• The second most taught language in the world.

Francophones (French speakers)…

• Number around 274 million, globally.

• 212 million are native speakers, while 62 million have learned French as a second language.

• Have a total income representing about 5% of the world economy (while making up only 1.5% to 2% of its population).
  
  *guess | *around