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.”
What the 150 top websites do
Of the top 150 website (Global by design ranking):
- 149/150 translate into French
- 20/150 translate both into French and English
- 1/150 translates 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
3%
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) – 34 of 111 countries/regions in the world- 26/35 position in Europe.
Demography
Capital: Paris
Currency: Euro
Population: 67,93 m
Population density: 123/km2
Economy
GDP: 2,782 billion USD (2022)
GDP per capita: 40,963.8 USD (2022)
Exports: $569 billion (2021)
Statistics
Internet users: 92.6% penetration, 59.94 million
Unemployment rate: 7.9% (2021)
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
$696 billion (2021). Cars ($40.3B), Refined Petroleum($23.1B), Petroleum Gas ($22.5B), Packaged Medicaments ($19.6B), and Crude Petroleum ($16.1B), importing mostly from Germany ($119B), Italy ($61.6B), Belgium ($59.9B), Spain ($59B), and Netherlands ($57.1B).
In 2021, France was the world’s biggest importer of Non-fillet Fresh Fish ($2.67B), Glands and Other Organs ($1.08B), Nuclear Reactors ($709M), Other Metal Fasteners ($402M), and Agglomerated Cork ($213M).
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 (2022, World Bank).
Global Innovation Index
Ranked 8th out of 39 European countries, 12th 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
$569 billion (2021). Planes, Helicopters, and/or Spacecraft ($35.2B), Packaged Medicaments ($27.2B), Cars ($20.7B), Motor vehicles; parts and accessories (8701 to 8705) ($13.5B), and Wine ($13.2B), exporting mostly to Germany ($74.1B), Italy ($46B), Belgium ($43.8B), United States ($42.1B), and Spain ($41.6B).
In 2021, France was the world’s biggest exporter of Planes, Helicopters, and/or Spacecraft ($35.2B), Wine ($13.2B), Beauty Products ($10.8B), Perfumes ($6.23B), and Bovine ($1.6B).
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 63.6 out of 100) ranked 33rd out of 43 European countries and ranked 57th out of 186 countries worldwide (2022, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal).
Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal
Service Imports (2020)
Service Exports (2020)
Source: OEC
Most complex products by PCI
Product Complexity Index measures the knowledge intensity of a product by considering the knowledge intensity of its exporters
Source: OEC
Most Specialized Products by RCA Index
Specialisation is measured using Revealed Comparative Advantage, an index that takes the ratio between France observed and expected exports in each product
Source: OEC
Export Opportunities by Relatedness
Relatedness measures the distance between a country's current exports and each product, the barchart show only products that France is not specialized in
Source: OEC
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
92.6% penetration, 59.94 million.
Share of web traffic by device
50.13% mobile phones, 47.28% computers (laptops and desktops), 2.53% tablet devices, others 0.06%
Median speed of mobile Internet connection
59.66 Mbps
Median speed of fixed Internet connection
150.15 Mbps
Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 110%
Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 98.2%
Most popular web search engines
Google (91.52%), Bing (4.48%),Yahoo! (1.54%), Ecosia (0.75%), Qwant (0.57%), other (1.14%).
Most used social media
Facebook (66.66%), Instagram (11%), Pinterest (8.4%), Twitter (8.14%), YouTube (2.76%), LinkedIn (1.47%), reddit (0.57%), other (1%).
Internet data sources: Datareportal/Statcounter
Social statistics
Life expectancy
82 yrs (2021)
Corruption perception Index
France scored 72 out of 100, ranked 21st out of 180 countries worldwide.
Current health expenditure
12.21% of GDP
CO2 emissions
4.0 metric tons per capita
Current education expenditure
91.5% 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
Source: UNESCO
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
Languages 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
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