French is an official language in 39 countries and is partly spoken as a mother tongue in 7 other countries. The French language (native name: français, langue française) has its roots in the Indo-European language family. As a percentage of the total population, the largest share of around 94 percent is in France.
Major ethnic groups are Germans (1.4 million), Bretons (1.2 million), Flemish (400,000), Catalonians (200,000), Corsicans (140,000), and Basques (130,000). France has had many ethnic and religious minorities, including Germans, Swiss, Italians, Protestants, Jews, Gypsies, and Mennonites.
most-spoken language: English 16.5%, Mandarin Chinese 14.6%, Hindi 8.3%, Spanish 7%, French 3.6%, Arabic 3.6%, Bengali 3.4%, Russian 3.4%, Portuguese 3.3%, Indonesian 2.6% (2020 est.)
Some enthusiasts have declared that the main ethnic groups in France are the Celtic, Latin and Frankish peoples, but others have observed that there are more ethnic groups that include but are not limited to: Americans, Africans, Asians, Armenians, Basques, Bretons, Persians, Flemish and Sephardis.
During the French revolution, the French society was divided into three estates. The peasants belong to the third estate and have to pay all the taxes, the third estate constituted 97% of the population out of which most of them were peasants (About 90%).
The Third Estate: made up 97 percent of the population. This estate was made up of three diverse groups. First Group-Bourgeoisie or middle class: this group was bankers, factory owners, merchants, and professionals. Well educated and believed in the Enlightenment ideals.
98% of France's population made up the Third Estate. There were three sub-groups in the Third Estate.
Italy doesn't count its population by colour. But it would be fair to say that the country is overwhelmingly white: the National Institute for Statistics reports that more than 92% of the country is ethnic Italian, which is often interpreted in practical terms as white.
The modern French are the descendants of mixtures including Romans, Celts, Iberians, Ligurians and Greeks in southern France, Germanic peoples arriving at the end of the Roman Empire such as the Franks and the Burgundians, and some Vikings who mixed with the Normans and settled mostly in Normandy in the 9th century.
Since the end of the Second World War, France has become an ethnically diverse country. Today, approximately five percent of the French population is non-European and non-white. This does not approach the number of non-white citizens in the United States (roughly 15-25%, depending on how Latinos are classified).
According to the U.S. Census Bureau of 2000, 5.3 percent of Americans are of French or French Canadian ancestry. In 2013 the number of people living in the U.S. who were born in France was estimated at 129,520.
With a population of 67 million, France has the largest number of French speakers in the world. It is also the country of origin of the language, and the country most commonly associated with French.
Estimated to be 4.5-5 million (approximately 6.9% of the French population); it is illegal for the state to collect data on ethnicity and race.
Around one in 20 of France's population is of African origin.
To be sure, France is a culturally diverse country, and this dimension is not ignored entirely.
People living in southern and central England today typically share about 40% of their DNA with the French, 11% with the Danes and 9% with the Belgians, the study of more than 2,000 people found.
English vocabulary comprises 29% French, 29% Latin, 26% Germanic, and 6% Greek.
Typical physical characteristics of French people include olive skin, darker features, definition in the nose and brow, and slightly larger eyes. The French have a wide collection of stereotypes, including being hopeless romantics, very elegant, stuck up, and highly intelligent.
Lower literacy rates are found mostly in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The world's largest ethnic group is Han Chinese, constituting over 19% of the global population in 2011. In terms of the largest number of native speakers, Mandarin is the world's most spoken language.
Thus, Latino refers to France, Spain, Italy and other regions where these languages are spoken. Nowadays, though, the definition has come to refer to Latin Americans, although its origins can be traced to the former Roman Empire. “All Hispanics are Latinos, but not all Latinos are Hispanics.
The Third Estate.
The Third Estate contained over 95% of the French population. Laborers, tradesmen, merchants, aristocrats, and the bourgeoisie, all fell into this category and were the backbone of society.
The French decline is generally regarded as differing from the decline in other European countries only in timing, and the decline in all these countries is attributed to the innovative use of modern fertility control methods, which once introduced, were widely and rapidly accepted.
It remained high for about twenty years, and then, in 1964, it began to decline again, ending the baby-boom in France as well as in most industrialized countries. Since 1975, TFR has remained more or less stable in France at around 1.8 children per woman.