List of countries where French is an official language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Map showing countries where French is de jure official language.

The following is a list of the 29 countries where French is an official language. Note that in most of these countries, French is not the only language, and therefore the population does not indicate the number of French-speakers.

Nr.	Country	Continent	Population[1]
#	-	World	367,141,450
1.	Democratic Republic of the Congo	Africa	66,514,506
2.	[[:Template:FRA']]	Europe	64,057,790
3.	Canada	North America	33,212,696
4.	Madagascar	Africa	20,042,551
5.	Cameroon	Africa	18,467,692
6.	Côte d'Ivoire	Africa	18,373,060
7.	Burkina Faso	Africa	15,264,735
8.	Niger	Africa	13,272,679
9.	Senegal	Africa	12,853,259
10.	Mali	Africa	12,324,029
11.	Belgium	Europe	10,403,951
12.	Guinea	Africa	10,211,437
13.	Rwanda	Africa	10,186,063
14.	Chad	Africa	10,111,337
15.	Haiti	Caribbean	8,924,553
16.	Burundi	Africa	8,691,005
17.	Benin	Africa	8,294,941
18.	Switzerland	Europe	7,581,520
19.	Togo	Africa	5,858,673
20.	Central African Republic	Africa	4,434,873
21.	Republic of the Congo	Africa	3,903,318
22.	Gabon	Africa	1,485,832
23.	Comoros	Africa	731,775
24.	Equatorial Guinea	Africa	616,459
25.	Djibouti	Africa	506,221
26.	Luxembourg	Europe	486,006
27.	Vanuatu	Oceania	215,446
28.	Seychelles	Africa	82,247
29.	Monaco	Europe	32,796

In addition to this, the State of the City of the Vatican lets itself register as a French-speaking country in the international organisations with which it has relationships.^{[citation needed]} Similarly, the union territory Puducherry in Tamilnadu, India has one of its official language as French and its status was preserved by Traité de Cession signed by India and France on 28 May 1956.

[edit] Dependent entities

Nr.	Country	Continent	Population	Status
1.	Louisiana	North America	4,468,976	State of United States Note that French is not de jure official
2.	Pondicherry	Asia	973,829	Union Territory of India
3.	French Polynesia	Oceania	283,019	Overseas Collectivity of France
4.	New Caledonia	Oceania	224,824	Overseas Collectivity of France
5.	Mayotte	Africa	216,306	Overseas Collectivity of France
6.	Aosta Valley	Europe	123,978	Autonomous region of Italy
7.	Jersey	Europe	91,533	British Crown dependency
8.	Guernsey	Europe	65,726	British Crown dependency
9.	Saint Martin	North America	29,376	Overseas Collectivity of France
10.	Wallis and Futuna	Oceania	16,448	Overseas Collectivity of France
11.	Saint Barthélemy	North America	7,492	Overseas Collectivity of France
12.	Saint Pierre and Miquelon	North America	7,044	Overseas Collectivity of France
13.	French Southern and Antarctic Lands	Antarctica, Africa	140	TAAF districts
14.	Clipperton	North America	0	French state private property

The four overseas regions of France (régions d'outre-mer, or ROM): Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, and Réunion, have the same status as metropolitan France and are not listed here. (Analogous to the state of Hawaii having the same status as a continental U.S. state).

[edit] Countries where French is commonly used but not official

Location of Maghreb

Nr.	Country	Continent	Population
1.	Morocco	Africa	34,343,219
2.	Algeria	Africa	33,769,669
3.	Tunisia	Africa	10,383,577
4.	Lebanon	Asia	3,971,941
5.	Mauritania	Africa	3,364,940
6.	Mauritius	Africa	1,274,189
7.	Andorra	Europe	72,413

[edit] Alphabetical list

• Belgium
• Benin
• Burkina Faso
• Burundi
• Cameroon
• Canada
• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Comoros
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Côte d'Ivoire
• Djibouti
• Equatorial Guinea
• France
• Gabon
• Guinea
• Haiti
• Luxembourg
• Madagascar
• Mali
• Monaco
• New Caledonia
• Niger
• Republic of the Congo
• Rwanda
• Senegal
• Seychelles
• Switzerland
• Tahiti
• Togo
• Vanuatu

[edit] References

1. ^ "The World Factbook". Central Intelligence Agency (July 2008 estimates). Retrieved on 2008-06-14.

[edit] See also

• French language
• Francophonie
• List of international organisations which have French as an official language