I hope your International Day of La Francophonie was wonderful.
I spent part of the day on March 20th learning more about the Francophonie by reading La langue française dans le monde (2022 summary report).
Published every four years, the report paints a portrait of the Francophonie and the use of the French language globally. If you don’t want to read the summary, l’Organisation internationale de la Francophonie has prepared a short video showing some of the report’s main findings.
Souleymane Bachir Diagne, a professor at Columbia University, wrote the report’s preface. He observes that the Francophonie is varied and diverse, reflecting the plurality of the world.
Here are some things that I learned from the report:
- There are about 321 million French speakers, on all continents and in all countries; 21 million more than three years ago.
- More than half of the world’s French speakers (163 million) live on the African continent.
- French is the official language of 32 states and governments and the 5th most spoken language in the world. 80% of its speakers use it daily.
- The top 3 French-speaking countries (in terms of the number of speakers) are: France (66 million), the Democratic Republic of Congo (42.5 million), and Algeria (13.8 million)
- French is used in the education systems of 36 states and governments
- The majority of Francophones in sub-Saharan Africa and the Maghreb are between 15-24 years. Nearly 70% of the 51 million learners of French as a foreign language live on the African continent.
- Some researchers estimate that the number of French speakers could grow to between 500 and 800 million by 2070.
Image: Volodymyr Hryshchenko on Unsplash
Catherine Fisher, blogger
