Black people in France
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (Approximately 1.8-5 million (3-7.5% of the French population); it is illegal for the French State to collect data on ethnicity and race.) |
|
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Nantes, French West Indies, French Guiana, Réunion, Mayotte, New Caledonia | |
| Languages | |
| French; various African languages, French Creoles and others | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity, others |
French Black people or Black people in France (French: Noirs de France) are people who are of Black African ancestry or Afro-Caribbean.
Although it is illegal for the French state to collect data on ethnicity and race, a law with its origins in the 1789 revolution and reaffirmed in the constitution of 1958, various population estimates exist. One source states that there are 1.5 million black people in France, while another states 1.865 million, equivalent to just under 4 per cent of the population. An article in the New York Times stated that estimates vary between 3 million and 5 million. It is estimated that four out of five black people in France are of African immigrant origin, with the minority being chiefly of Caribbean ancestry.
Some organizations, such as the Representative Council of France's Black Associations (French: Conseil représentatif des associations noires de France, CRAN), have argued in favour of the introduction of data collection on minority groups but this has been resisted by other organizations and ruling politicians, often on the grounds that collecting such statistics goes against France's secular principles and harks back to Vichy-era identity documents. During the 2007 presidential election, however, Nicolas Sarkozy was polled on the issue and stated that he favoured the collection of data on ethnicity. Part of a parliamentary bill which would have permitted the collection of data for the purpose of measuring discrimination was rejected by the Conseil Constitutionnel in November 2007.
There have been dozens of Afro-Caribbean or Afro-French MPs representing overseas electoral districts at the French National Assembly or at the French Senate, and several government members.
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