Francophonie - what is it?

'Francophonie' is a term used to describe countries or regions where there are french-speakers. The term was created by the geographer Onésime Reclus in 1880. Despite it not appearing in dictionaries until 1930, it is becoming an increasingly used term as our society begins to reflect in greater depth on cultural differences between francophone regions.

Some facts and statistics to understand the idea of Francophonie...

• French is the 5th most spoken language in the world

• 300 million people speak French (60% live in Africa)

L'Afrique du Nord (stats --> number of french-speakers)

1. Morocco (11.9 million)

Sub-Saharan Africa

1. The Democratic Republic of Congo (33 million)

2. Cameroon (21 million)

3. Ivory Coast (10 million)

Countries in the Indian Ocean

1. Madagascar has the greatest number of french-speakers (123,000)

2. Seychelles and Mauritius have the greatest proportion of french speakers. Seychelles - 95% of the population, Mauritius - 90% of the population.

Europe

1. France (67 million)

2. Belgium (5 million)

3. Switzerland (2 million)

North America

1. Quebec (9 million)

By reading some of these statistics, I hope that it is abundantly clear that French is not solely spoken in France. Therefore, by learning french, you can theoretically communicate with 300 million people rather than just the 67 million that live in France. What better time to start learning French!

The map below shows francophone regions across the world.