How Many People Live in France?

France has a population of approximately 66.6 million people in metropolitan France, making it the second most populous country in the European Union after Germany. Add the overseas territories (Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Réunion, Mayotte) and the total reaches about 68.4 million. Paris alone accounts for about 12.3 million in the metro area, nearly one in five French residents.

For centuries, France was the most populous country in Europe. During the reign of Louis XIV in the late 1600s, France had about 20 million people while England had only 5 million. That demographic advantage shaped European politics for hundreds of years. Today France has fallen to 21st globally, but it remains a demographic outlier in Europe: it had one of the highest birth rates on the continent for decades, thanks to aggressive family policy (generous child benefits, subsidized childcare, long parental leave). That era is ending. The fertility rate dropped to about 1.68 children per woman in 2023, the lowest in French history, and the population is now barely growing.

France is also one of the most ethnically diverse countries in Western Europe, though it is famously impossible to quantify this because French law prohibits collecting census data on race or ethnicity. The official position is that everyone in France is simply "French." Estimates from demographic studies suggest about 7 million foreign-born residents (10.3%), with the largest communities from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Portugal, and sub-Saharan Africa.

📊 Key Demographics

Largest cities and metro areas

Population through history

France vs neighbors

France is the largest country in Western Europe by area (more than twice the size of the UK), but has lower population density than most of its neighbors. The countryside, particularly the central Massif Central and rural south, is famously underpopulated. Some villages have fewer residents today than they did in the 1800s, a phenomenon the French call "la diagonale du vide" (the empty diagonal) running from the northeast to the southwest.

Overseas France

These territories give France the second-largest exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the world after the United States, covering 11.7 million km² of ocean. France has land in every ocean and on every continent except Antarctica (though it does claim a slice of that too: Adélie Land). When French politicians say "the sun never sets on France," they are not exaggerating.

🇫🇷 France Spans 12 Time Zones, More Than Any Other Country

Thanks to its overseas territories (Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Reunion, New Caledonia, French Polynesia and others), France stretches across 12 time zones, more than Russia (11) or the US (6). These territories add about 2.8 million people to Frances population and give it the largest exclusive economic zone in the world. Metropolitan France itself is in a single time zone, but the republic as a whole literally never sleeps.