[Map] Where and which are the French speaking countries in the world ?

Where in the world are the French speaking countries and speakers ?

In 2018, the Observatory of French language of the International Organization of Francophony (IOF) counted more than 301 million French speakers through the world. As shown in the table below, French speaking countries and speakers in Africa are numerous, every more than French speaking countries in Europe:

Continents	Total number of Francophones (2018)	Proportion
Africa	140,909,000	46.80%
Europe	134,442,000	44.65%
North America	14 ,270,000	4.74%
South America & Caribbean	5,743,000	1.91%
Near & Middle East	3,180,000	1.06%
Asia & Oceania	2,552,000	0.85%
Total	301,096,000	100%

The 15 most French speaking countries in the world

Here's the top 3 French speaking countries in the world, in terms of people speaking French:

Then come the following French speaking countries in the ranking:

Rank	Countries	Number of Francophones
4	Morocco	12,729,000
5	Germany	12,242,000
6	Italia	11,520,000
7	Canada	10,982,000
8	United Kingdom	10,931,000
9	Cameroon	10,006,000
10	Belgium	8,678,000
11	Ivory Coast	8,259,000
12	Tunisia	6,081,000
13	Switzerland	5,734,000
14	Spain	5,443,000
15	Madagascar	5,253,000

Which countries have the highest proportion of French speakers in their population?

Here below are the 3 French speaking countries in the world that have the highest French speaking levels into their national population:

Then come the following French speaking countries in the ranking:

Rank	Countries	Proportion of Francophones
4	Switzerland	67.11%
5	Gabon	66.15%
6	Congo	58.93%
7	Seychelles	52.63%
8	Tunisia	52.16%
9	Democratic Republic of Congo	50.63%
10	Djibouti	50.05%
11	Haïti	42.00%
12	Cameroon	40.55%
13	Togo	40.26%
14	Lebanon	37.99%
15	Morocco	35.17%
-	...	...
20	Canada	29.47%

Focus n°1 : the French language in Canada

In total, according to the numbers of the Observatory of the French Language, out of the 37.3 million of Canadians, a little less than 11 million are Francophones, which represents a proportion of about 29.5 % French speakers in the overall Canadian population. Thus, on international level, Canada is classified as:

• The 7th country of the world counting the more Francophones in number
• The 20th country of the world counting the more Francophones in proportion of its population.

In Canada, French speakers are mainly distributed in the following three provinces:

Focus n°2 : the French language in Maghreb

The Maghreb region gathers among the most active French speaking countries in Africa. Regarding numbers of the Observatory of the French language in 2018, out of the 90 million inhabitants who populate the 3 Maghreb countries (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia), 32.6 million are Francophones, i.e. a proportion of 36.3 % of French-speakers within the total Maghreb population.

North Africa remains, in 2018, an important Francophony land. Here's the repartition of French speakers between those 3 countries:

Thus:

• Algeria is classified as the third country counting the more French speakers in the world (Morocco is fourth)
• Tunisia is classified as the eighth country in the world counting the more French speakers in proportion of its population

Will there be more than a billion French speakers in 2065?

As observed above, Africa is, in 2018, the continent which concentrates the most Francophones with about 141 million people (i.e. 7.5 million more than in Europe). With the present and future demographic dynamism of most of the French speaking countries in Africa, The IOF predicts that the population of all countries with French as their official language will exceed one billion shortly before 2065.

Indeed, the IOF anticipates a much greater demographic dynamism of countries with French as their official language over the next five decades, in comparison with other groups of countries with Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese or German as their official language. Nevertheless, as shown in the tables above, countries with French as their official language are far from having 100% of their inhabitants who speak the language of Molière.

So, it is very unlikely that the billion of French speakers will be exceeded in 2065, all the population of the French speaking countries will grow a lot in the meantime.