France

===Language===
{{Main|French language|Languages of France|Organisation internationale de la Francophonie}}
[[File:Map-Francophone World.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|alt=world map of French speaking countries|Map of the [[List of territorial entities where French is an official language|Francophone]] world:
{{Legend|#0c5eb1|Native language}}
{{Legend|#0080ff|Administrative language}}
{{Legend|#9fceff|Secondary or cultural language}}
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The official language of France is French,<ref>{{In lang|fr}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20110604145028/http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/html/constitution/constitution2.htm La Constitution- La Constitution du 4 Octobre 1958]&nbsp;– Légifrance.</ref> a [[Romance language]] derived from [[Latin]]. Since 1635, the [[Académie française]] has been France's official authority on the French language, although its recommendations carry no legal weight. There are also regional languages spoken in France, such as [[Occitan language|Occitan]], [[Breton language|Breton]], [[Catalan language|Catalan]], [[French Flemish|Flemish]] ([[Dutch language|Dutch]] dialect), [[Alsatian dialect|Alsatian]] (German dialect), [[Basque language|Basque]], and [[Corsican language|Corsican]] (Italian dialect). Italian was the official language of Corsica until 9 May 1859.<ref>Abalain, Hervé, (2007) ''Le français et les langues historiques de la France'', Éditions Jean-Paul Gisserot, p. 113.</ref>

The Government of France does not regulate the choice of language in publications by individuals, but the use of French is required by law in commercial and workplace communications. In addition to mandating the use of French in the territory of the Republic, the French government tries to promote French in the European Union and globally through institutions such as the {{Lang|fr|[[Organisation internationale de la Francophonie]]|italic=no}}. The perceived threat from [[anglicisation]] has prompted efforts to safeguard the position of the French language in France. Besides French, there exist 77 vernacular minority languages of France, eight spoken in French metropolitan territory and 69 in the French [[Overseas departments and territories of France|overseas territories]]. It is estimated that between 300&nbsp;million<ref>{{Cite web |title=French: one of the world's main languages |url=http://about-france.com/french/french-language.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20160516223437/http://about-france.com/french/french-language.htm |archive-date=16 May 2016 |access-date=21 July 2011 |publisher=About-france.com}}</ref> and 500&nbsp;million<ref>{{In lang|fr}} [http://www.tlfq.ulaval.ca/axl/francophonie/francophonie.htm Qu'est-ce que la Francophonie ?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110623113030/http://www.tlfq.ulaval.ca/axl/francophonie/francophonie.htm|date=23 June 2011}}&nbsp;– [[Organisation internationale de la Francophonie]]</ref> people worldwide can speak French, either as a mother tongue or as a second language.

According to the 2007 Adult Education survey, part of a project by the [[European Union]] and carried out in France by the [[INSEE]] and based on a sample of 15,350 persons, French was the native language of 87.2% of the total population, or roughly 55.81&nbsp;million people, followed by Arabic (3.6%, 2.3&nbsp;million), Portuguese (1.5%, 960,000), Spanish (1.2%, 770,000) and Italian (1.0%, 640,000). Native speakers of other languages made up the remaining 5.2% of the population.<ref>{{Cite web |title=GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences |url=https://www.gesis.org/en/missy/metadata/AES/2007/Cross-sectional/original#2007-Cross-sectional-MOTHTONG1 |access-date=24 April 2018 |website=gesis.org}}</ref>