Who acquires French nationality today?
Figures, male/female distribution, data on these new French citizens
Whereas the number of foreigners acquiring French nationality had been consistently growing from the 90s up until 2004, naturalisations have been dropping for around fifteen years.
There were over 92,000 in 1995, 168,826 in 2004, then a little over 150,000 in 2005.
113,608 in 2015, 110,014 in 2018, 109,821 in 2019 and 84,864 in 2020, the first year of the health crisis.
Since the late 1990s, the majority of these new French citizens acquired nationality through naturalisation, but acquisitions of nationality by marriage with a French national fluctuated between 16,213 (in 2008) and 34,439 (in 2004). Between 2016 and 2020, the number of acquisitions of French nationality by marriage was respectively 20,702, 17,476, 21,000, 25,262 and 18,223.
The distribution between men and women among those who become French has been relatively stable, women have been catching up a little and, today, are a slight majority (50.7 % in 2005, and 51.2% in 2014).
Geographic origins
Distribution based on the origins of people acquiring French nationality demonstrates the history of migratory flows and the diversification of origins, with a shift taking place over time. Between 2005-2014, the share of individuals of European origin was around 13%. But while the share of new French citizens coming from Italy, Spain and Portugal has dropped (from 7% to 4 %), the share of new French citizens from an Eastern European country is increasing and especially from Russia, with numbers tripling in the space of ten years.
Concerning Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, their share in naturalisations has gone from almost half of naturalisations in 2005 to 37% in 2014, while Mali, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon have gone from 5% to 12% in ten years. The share of all naturalised individuals coming from Africa was around 65% in 2014. The share of acquisitions of French nationality by people of Asian origin (South-East Asia and Turkey) has dropped, going from 17% in 2005 to 14% in 2014).
Mustapha Harzoune, 2022
Sources: Insee, Infos migrations, Number 84 – May 2016
