Europe
To which language should you translate to localize in France?
What we know from our community
“The main language spoken in France is French. French is an official language in 29 countries including, in Europe, Belgium and Switzerland. While French written in Belgium and Switzerland is quite similar to French in France, there are some peculiarities and regional expressions that you may notice especially in the spoken language. There are other languages and dialects spoken in France, such as the Breton language in Brittany and the Occitan language in the south of France. Although they are considered a key part of their region’s identity and are still spoken in various regions, these languages are almost never used in official documents, national media and advertising, where French standard is the most common. On top of that, you’ll also find different regional accents and peculiarities in different parts of France – see the Marseille region, for example, which is well known for its singing accent and colorful expressions such as ‘fada’ (‘fou’ in standard French = a person who is nuts). Influenced by the urban culture of French “banlieues” (suburbs of large cities), slang is also widely used among younger generations and in musical hits but is rarely used in advertising where one tends to speak a more neutral and widespread language.”
LANGUAGE INSIGHT
Official language
French
What the top 150 best localized websites in the world do in France
(Top 150 websites listed in the Global by Design ranking – published annually by Byte Level Research, this report provides a list of globally localized websites, showcasing best practices and emerging trends in their globalization)
- 149/150 localize by translating into French
- 20/150 localize by translating both into French and English
- 1/150 localizes by translating into LSF (Langue des signes française)
If you need others information, below you can find a selection of economic/social/cultural data
Overview
Language
Official language
French
T-index
2.5%
T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales.
Other languages
Arabic, Berber, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Turkish, German, Chinese, Vietnamese, Hebrew, Russian, Dutch, English.
English
Moderate proficiency (EF) – 43 of 113 countries/regions in the world- 30/34 position in Europe.
Demography
Capital: Paris
Currency: Euro
Population: 68.17M
Population density: 124/km2
Economy
GDP: 3,030 billion USD (2023)
GDP per capita: 44,460.82 USD (2023)
Exports: $608 billion (2022)
Statistics
Internet users: 93.8% penetration, 60.80 million
Unemployment rate: 7.32% (2023)
Urbanisation: 82% (2022)
Literacy: 99% (2019)
Conventions
Numbering system
Arabic numerals and comma as decimal separator, space as thousands separator.
Date format: yyyy-mm-dd / dd-mm-yyyy
Time: 24h time system
Country code: 0033
Language data sources: Worldatlas/Britannica//EF/Wikipedia; Demography data sources: IMF/Worldometers; Conventions data source: Wikipedia; Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal; Statistics data sources: Datareportal/WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF/Culturalatlas/Commisceoglobal
Facts and data
Economy
Imports
$799 billion (2022). Petroleum Gas ($61.9B), Cars ($37.3B), Refined Petroleum ($34.3B), Crude Petroleum ($32.3B), and Packaged Medicaments ($17.6B), importing mostly from Germany ($120B), Belgium ($71.1B), Spain ($65.2B), Italy ($63.8B), and Netherlands ($59.9B).
In 2022, France was the world’s biggest importer of Electricity ($14.6B), Non-fillet Fresh Fish ($2.78B), Butter ($1.53B), Glands and Other Organs ($1.11B), and Nuclear Reactors ($616M).
Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of age)
• 99.2% have an account with a financial institution
• 39.8% have a credit card
Ease of doing business
It is easy to conduct business (rated 76.8 out of 100), ranked 20th out of 34 OECD high income countries, and ranked 32nd out of 190 countries worldwide (2023, World Bank).
Global Innovation Index
Ranked 8th out of 39 European countries, 11th out of 132 worldwide.
The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.
Exports
$608 billion (2022). Planes, Helicopters, and/or Spacecraft ($26.6B), Packaged Medicaments ($26B), Cars ($21.3B), Petroleum Gas ($15.9B), and Motor vehicles; parts and accessories (8701 to 8705) ($13.9B), exporting mostly to Germany ($78.3B), Italy ($56.4B), United States ($50B), Belgium ($47.8B), and Spain ($46.4B).
In 2022, France was the world’s biggest exporter of Wine ($13.1B), Beauty Products ($10.8B), Perfumes ($7.24B), Bovine ($1.72B), and Water ($921M).
Main local online stores
Amazon, Cdiscount.com and Fnac. Other top retail sites include eBay, Carrefour, Rakuten, Google Shopping, Leroy Merlin, La Redoute and Apple sites.
Economic freedom
‘Moderately free’ (rated 62.5 out of 100) ranked 33rd out of 43 European countries and ranked 62nd out of 184 countries worldwide (2023, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal).
Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal
Service Imports (2020)
Service Exports (2020)
Source: OEC
Trade balance of goods from 2013 to 2023
Source: Statista
Historical Data Trade Imports
The following section uses historical trade data imports from partners of France.
Historical Data Trade Exports
The following section uses historical trade data exports from partners of France.
Source: OEC
France's Most Specialized Products
Specialization is measured using Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), an index that takes the ratio between France observed and expected exports in each product.
Source: OEC
France's Most Complex Exports
The Product Complexity Index (PCI) measures the knowledge intensity of a product by considering the knowledge intensity of its exporters.
The Top Export Opportunities for France by Relatedness
Relatedness measures the distance between a country's current exports and each product by showing only products that France is not specialized in.
Source: OEC
Perception of products made in selected countries in 2017
Source: Statista
Which attributes do you associate with products made in France?
Source: Statista
Market Growth Imports
This score represents the likelihood that the given country will start importing that product in the next few years. It forecasts the opening of a new specific market.
Market Growth Exports
This score represents the likelihood that the given country will start exporting that product in the next few years. It forecasts the opening of a new specific market.
Source: OEC
Foreign direct investment, net inflows (% of GDP)
Source: WorldBank
Which of the following method do you prefer to use when you pay for a product you have bought online? (2019)
Source: PostNord
T-index
Reach most of the online purchasing power
T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales. It estimates the market share of each country in relation to global e-commerce.
Try it nowMedia
Media language
Predominantly French, English, Arabic.
Information channels:
Television is France’s most popular medium. The flagship network, TF1, is privately-owned and public broadcaster France Televisions is funded from the TV licence fee and advertising revenue. Satellite and cable offer a proliferation of channels. Major pay-TV operator Canal+ is owned by media giant Vivendi. Digital terrestrial TV carries dozens of channels. France has a free press and more than 100 daily newspapers. Most of them are in private hands and are not linked to political parties. Public Radio France serves a domestic audience and French overseas territories. Commercial radios, particularly RTL and Europe 1, command large audiences. France is a force in international broadcasting. Radio France Internationale is a leading outlet and its Arabic-language Monte Carlo Doualiya service broadcasts across the Middle East. Global news channel France 24 TV broadcasts in French, English and Arabic. It has said it aims to present “a different point of view from the Anglo-Saxon world”.
The press
Le Monde – respected national daily, considered to be France’s newspaper of record.
Liberation – national daily, founded in 1973 by philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, centre-left leaning.
Le Figaro – national daily, centre-right leaning.
Ouest France – Rennes-based; France’s best-selling daily.
L’Express – news weekly.
Le Point – news weekly.
Television
France 2 – national, main public TV network.
France 3 – national, public.
France 5 – national, public, educational.
BFM TV – national, commercial news channel.
TF1 – national, commercial.
M6 – national, commercial.
La Chaine Info – rolling news channel owned by TF1.
France 24 – publicly-owned global news channel; services in French, English, Arabic.
TV5 Monde – international French-language TV, with programs from French, Belgian, Swiss and Canadian public broadcasters.
Canal Plus – national, subscription channel.
Radio
Radio France – operates national and regional outlets, including speech-based France Inter and all-news France Info.
Radio France Internationale (RFI) – international broadcaster, via shortwave and FM relays worldwide.
Europe 1 – major commercial station, news and entertainment.
RTL – major commercial station, speech and music.
NRJ – commercial, leading hit music network.
News agency
Agence France Presse (AFP) – Paris-based, founded in 1835.
Media data source: BBC
Internet Data
Internet users
93.8% penetration, 60.80 million.
Share of web traffic by device
49.08% mobile phones, 48.02% computers (laptops and desktops), 2.84% tablet devices, others 0.06%.
Median speed of mobile Internet connection
79.60 Mbps
Median speed of fixed Internet connection
207.41 Mbps
Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 115.7%
Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 98.9%
Most popular web search engines
Google (90.93%), Bing (4.56%), Yahoo! (1.36%), YANDEX (0.96%), Ecosia (0.83%), other (1.37%).
Most used social media
Facebook (61.78%), Instagram (16.19%), Pinterest (9.8%), Twitter (6.14%), YouTube (3.04%), LinkedIn (1.46%), reddit (0.62%), other (0.96%).
Internet data sources: Datareportal/Statcounter
Social statistics
Life expectancy
82 yrs (2022)
Corruption perception Index
France scored 72 out of 100, ranked 21st out of 180 countries worldwide.
Current health expenditure
12.31% of GDP
CO2 emissions
4.0 metric tons per capita
Current education expenditure
92% of total expenditure in public institutions.
World Happiness Index
France ranked 20 out of 146 countries, with a score of 6.687.
Glass Ceiling Index
70.4 out of 100, ranked 5th out of 29 countries.
The glass-ceiling index measures the environment for working women combining data on higher education, labor-force participation, pay, child-care costs, maternity and paternity rights, business-school applications, and representation in senior jobs.
Religion
The majority of the French consider themselves to be Catholic. However, only 14% of them regularly attend church. Many think that religion belongs in private life and prefer to practice it outside of religious institutions. Muslims are the second largest religious group in France and most of France’s Muslims are from North Africa. There are also Protestant and Jewish minorities. The state is secular and discrimination, particularly in the workplace, is against the law.
Gender
According to the law there is no difference between the sexes and they enjoy the same freedoms. Women may hold the same positions as men; however, they are still in charge of bringing up children, doing housework etc., although this is becoming more equally shared. All of these tasks impede women from spending as much time at work as men can; therefore, the evolution of their career takes much longer. There are fewer women in positions of responsibility, but those who do hold them are respected all the more.
Social statistics sources: WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF
Tertiary education in France
Tertiary education in France, by sex (%)
Source: UNESCO
The Data Factbook is a work in progress project. Our community is helping us to fill it up always with new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write your advices at imminent@translated.com
Country Curiosities
Some experts believe that French could be the fastest-growing language by 2050. Why? It is because the language landscape for French has greatly grown due to the increase of French speakers in sub-Saharan Africa, which is estimated to be around 44% of the world’s French-speaking population. This number is projected to increase to 85%, or around 750 million people by 2050. Most recently France and Quebec governments have passed laws ensuring the French language is preserved, and is used in all business, financial, and tech-related activities.
Additionally…
- In France you can eat a different cheese every single day of the year. In 2022, France exported $3.76B in Cheese.
- With a total length of 29,000, the French railway network is the second largest in Europe (behind Germany) and the ninth biggest in the world.
- A whopping 89.3 million people visited the country in 2018, making it the most visited destination in the world.
- French was the official language of England between 1066 and 1362.
- Under French law, you can marry posthumously in exceptional cases.
- The world’s first artificial heart transplant and face transplant both took place in France
- With a whopping 9.6 million visitors in 2019, the famous Louvre is the most visited museum in the world.
- France is the Leading European Country in e-Government.
- There are 6,100 streets in Paris, and yet there is only one stop sign in the entire city. You can find it in the 16th arrondissement.
- French is the official language of France, and it’s also an official language in 29 other countries.
Language Research
Languages spoken in France
The language research that you will find in the maps published in this section is a work in progress. Our community is helping us to fill it up with always new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write to imminent.factbook@translated.com
Photo credit: Tomas Nozina, Unsplash