List of countries where French is an official language

Map showing countries where French is de jure official language.

The following is a list of the 28 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	356,955,387
1.	Democratic Republic of the Congo	Africa	66,514,506
2.	France	Europe	65,057,790
3.	Canada	North America	33,861,696
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.	Chad	Africa	10,111,337
14.	Haiti	North America	8,924,553
15.	Burundi	Africa	8,691,005
16.	Benin	Africa	8,294,941
17.	Switzerland	Europe	7,581,520
18.	Togo	Africa	5,858,673
19.	Central African Republic	Africa	4,434,873
20.	Republic of the Congo	Africa	3,903,318
21.	Gabon	Africa	1,485,832
22.	Comoros	Africa	731,775
23.	Equatorial Guinea	Africa	616,459
24.	Djibouti	Africa	506,221
25.	Luxembourg	Europe	486,006
26.	Vanuatu	Oceania	215,446
27.	Seychelles	Africa	82,247
28.	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. 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.

Dependent entities

Nr.	Country	Continent	Population	Status
1.	Pondicherry	Asia	973,829	Union Territory of India
2.	French Polynesia	Oceania	283,019	Overseas Collectivity of France
3.	New Caledonia	Oceania	224,824	Overseas Collectivity of France
4.	Mayotte	Africa	216,306	Overseas Collectivity of France
5.	Aosta Valley	Europe	123,978	Autonomous region of Italy
6.	Jersey	Europe	91,533	British Crown dependency
7.	Guernsey	Europe	65,726	British Crown dependency
8.	Saint Martin	North America	29,376	Overseas Collectivity of France
9.	Wallis and Futuna	Oceania	16,448	Overseas Collectivity of France
10.	Saint Barthélemy	North America	7,492	Overseas Collectivity of France
11.	Saint Pierre and Miquelon	North America	7,044	Overseas Collectivity of France
12.	French Southern and Antarctic Lands	Antarctica, Africa	140	TAAF districts
13.	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. French has a certain legal status in the US-state Louisiana but it's not considered de-jure official.

Countries where French is commonly used but not official

After gaining independence in the 1960s, the Arabic-speaking countries of the Maghreb, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria strived to reduce the use of French by implementing different arabisation policies. However, the language switch was difficult because competence in Literal Arabic (which is different from the Maghrebi varieties) was far behind competence in French. French remains the language of the private sector and close contacts with France ensures the language's survival. Mauritania, also an Arabic-speaking country, abolished French as a de-jure official in 1991, and has like its northern neighbours kept it as the de-facto second language.

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.	Rwanda	Africa	10,186,063
5.	Lebanon	Asia	4,088,941
6.	Mauritania	Africa	3,364,940
7.	Mauritius	Africa	1,274,189
8.	Andorra	Europe	72,413

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
• Senegal
• Seychelles
• Switzerland
• Tahiti
• Togo
• Vanuatu

References

1. ^ "The World Factbook". Central Intelligence Agency. July 2008 estimates. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/. Retrieved 2008-06-14. 

See also

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