Public debate talks about "immigrants" as if they were one undifferentiated group arriving to claim benefits. It helps to be precise about who is actually being discussed. This piece is about foreign nationals — foreigners living in France, the population the word "immigration" is loosely pointing at: how many there are, where they come from, how fast the number is growing, and whether France actually needs them. France's own statistics tell a more precise story than the headlines.
A note on data: INSEE changed its census method in 2024, so the 2025 figures used here are provisional and not directly comparable with pre-2024 years.
How many foreign nationals?
About 5.3 million foreign nationals born abroad live in France — a bit under 8% of the population. (A broader, widely-cited INSEE figure of about 8 million counts everyone born abroad as a foreigner, whatever their nationality today — a wider category than the 5.3 million who are foreign nationals now.) Most are long-settled legal residents who work and pay taxes and social contributions. INSEE — immigrants by group of country of birth
Where they come from
INSEE publishes the fine origin and EU/non-EU detail only for the wider ~8 million born-abroad-as-foreigners count, so the next two tables use that base; the naturalization step at the end of the section brings it back down to the 5.3 million who remain foreign nationals. By continent of birth (INSEE, 2025):
| Region of birth | Born abroad as foreigners | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Africa (Maghreb ~29%, sub-Saharan ~20%) | ~3.9 million | 49.2% |
| Europe | ~2.4 million | 30.3% |
| Asia | ~1.1 million | 14.3% |
| Americas / Oceania | ~0.5 million | 6.2% |
Source: INSEE — immigrants by group of country of birth.
The broad ranking holds among foreign nationals too, though naturalization — which varies sharply by origin — shifts the exact shares.
EU vs non-EU, and developed vs developing
This is the breakdown the headline numbers skip. About three-quarters of those born in Europe come from an EU country (Portugal, Italy and Spain above all), so a bit under a quarter of the whole born-abroad count are EU citizens with the automatic right to live and work here. The finer developed/developing split is our own grouping of INSEE's country-of-birth data (developed = the EU plus high-income countries such as the UK, Switzerland, the US, Canada, Japan, Australia; developing = Africa, most of Asia, Latin America and emerging Europe). INSEE does not publish this exact cross-tab, so treat the developed/developing rows as estimates.
| Group | Approx. number | Approx. share |
|---|---|---|
| Born in the EU | ~1.8 million | ~23% |
| Born outside the EU | ~6.2 million | ~77% |
| — of which developed, non-EU (high-income) origin | ~0.5 million | ~6% |
| — of which developing-country origin | ~5.7 million | ~71% |
Source: INSEE — immigrants by group of country of birth. The developed/developing rows are a grouping of that INSEE table, not a cross-tab INSEE publishes.
Those rows are for the wider born-abroad count. A large share of long-settled residents have taken French nationality, at rates that vary sharply by origin, so the still-foreign group is smaller than the totals above. Adjusting the ~5.7 million developing-origin residents for a naturalization rate a bit over 40% gives the narrower slice the "overwhelmed" narrative actually targets:
Non-EU + developing-country + still a foreign national: on the order of 3.3 million (~4-5% of population, estimate) — our own figure, built from INSEE's continent-of-birth and naturalization data (INSEE does not publish this exact number). In other words, of the roughly 5.3 million foreign nationals in France, about 3.3 million are of non-EU, developing-country origin. INSEE — immigrants by group of country of birth
That is the real size of the group behind the "immigration is overwhelming France" narrative: a few million people, most of working age, in a country of 68 million.
How fast is it growing?
Flows are far smaller than the stock. In 2024, about 313,000 foreign nationals settled in France — a gross figure, and down from 347,000 in 2023, a return toward pre-pandemic levels — while INSEE's central population projection assumes net migration (arrivals minus departures) of 150,000 per year, the great majority of it non-EU. For scale, +150,000 a year against a population of 68 million is about +0.2% a year. INSEE — population projections to 2070 (older, probably smaller population)
How many does France actually need?
There is no single official "France needs N immigrants" figure — it depends on assumptions. But France's own institutions point unmistakably in one direction:
- INSEE's central projection already bakes in 150,000 per year of net migration, and still projects the population starting to shrink around 2037, the under-45 population falling by 8.9 million by 2070, and the over-65 population rising by 5.8 million. Fertility is assumed at just 1.45 children per woman — well below the 2.1 replacement rate. Without migration, the decline would begin sooner and be steeper. INSEE — population projections to 2070 (older, probably smaller population)
- The job market is already short of workers. France Travail found 57.4% of planned hires "difficult" in 2024. DARES and France Stratégie project workforce departures of about 800,000 per year through 2030 as the workforce ages — and that 89% of all posts to be filled by 2030 come from replacing retirees, not new job creation. Shortages concentrate in health, home care, construction, hospitality, cleaning and logistics. DARES / France Strategie — 'Les Metiers en 2030' (retirements, shortages) France Travail — Besoins en main-d'oeuvre (hard-to-fill hiring survey)
- The state has formally acknowledged the need. France's January 2024 immigration law created a "shortage occupations" (métiers en tension) list precisely to let foreign workers be hired and regularized in the sectors that cannot fill jobs. Ministry of the Interior — shortage-occupations list for foreign workers (2024 law)
Put together: the working-age, largely non-EU foreign workers so often singled out are, in significant part, the very people France is relying on to care for its aging population, build its housing, and pay the contributions that fund the pensions that are the single biggest item in its budget. Immigration is a genuine policy debate — levels, integration, and public services all matter — but France's own demographic and labor data make a strong case that continued immigration is needed, not optional. Terra Nova — 'Immigrant workers: with or without them?'
Bottom line
- About 5.3 million foreign nationals born abroad live in France — a bit under 8% of the population.
- About 77% of the born-abroad count is non-EU; the non-EU, developing-origin, still-foreign group is on the order of 3.3 million (~5% of the population).
- Net migration runs ~+150,000/year — and INSEE assumes that much just to reach a scenario of gentle decline and rapid aging.
- With ~800,000 retirements a year to replace by 2030 and most hires already hard to fill, France's own demographic and labor data make a strong case that continued immigration is needed, not optional.
For where French public money actually goes — and how little of it is immigration-specific — see How French government spending actually works; for the "€6,000 a month" claim, see Fact-check: do immigrant families get €6,000 a month?.
Figures are drawn from INSEE (population, immigration and 2070 projections), DARES / France Stratégie and France Travail. The developed/developing and non-naturalized/non-EU splits are our estimates built on INSEE's published breakdowns. This is general information, not legal or financial advice.