Culture of France

Population

France is inhabited by 60.2 million people, with more than 20% of them living in Paris’ metropolitan area. France has a lower population growth than neighboring countries, but it has admitted more immigrants than them. Prior to WWII immigrants were from other European nations, but after the war millions came from North Africa and French-speaking Sub-Saharan Africa.

In the late fifties and early sixties, as the French colonial empire disintegrated, immigrants (including French settlers) arrived from Algeria, Africa and Indochina. A 1974 law banned new foreign workers, effectively ending large-scale immigration. Despite this, a racist backlash against North-African Muslims has occurred in recent years with the extreme-right Front National party gaining votes by fanning the flames. Immigration laws passed in the nineties allowed some to gain legal status, but also led to the deportation of others and made it more difficult to become a citizen and sponsor relatives from abroad.

Religion

The French population is 80% Catholic, generally progressive. There are 4-5 million Muslims, composing the nation’s second largest religious group. Most are 1st, 2nd or 3rd generation North-African immigrants. There are approximately one million Protestants. Jews have lived in France since the time of the Romans and now number close to 650,000.