As Americans tune in to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France, many will have a special connection to the host nation: more than 6 million people living in the United States reported French ancestry and around 180,000 were born in France.

The U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) provides counts and characteristics of the nation’s population groups, including those with French ancestry and the foreign-born from France.

Defining French Ancestry and Foreign-Born from France

The ancestry question on the ACS asks respondents to identify their ancestry or ethnic origin, which can include their or their ancestors’ descent, roots, heritage or place of birth.

In 2022, 6,310,548 people reported French ancestry alone or in combination with another ancestry. In this article, French does not include those who reported French Canadian (1,626,456), Cajun (91,706), Basque (62,731) or Alsatian (9,587) roots unless reported along with French ancestry.

The number of people reporting French ancestry in the United States has steadily declined since the 1980s when the Census Bureau began collecting data on ancestry.

People who identified their ancestry as French could have been born abroad or in the United States; similarly, the foreign-born from France may include individuals who do not have French ancestry.

According to ACS data on the foreign-born from France, which come from answers to questions about citizenship and place of birth, there were 182,467 foreign-born from France in the United States in 2022.

“Foreign-born” refers to anyone who was not a U.S. citizen at birth. This includes naturalized U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (immigrants), temporary migrants (such as foreign students), humanitarian migrants (such as refugees and asylees) and unauthorized migrants.

The term “foreign-born” does not include individuals with at least one U.S. citizen parent when born since they are U.S. citizens at birth.

In this article, “foreign-born from France,” “born in France” and “French-born” are used interchangeably to refer to the foreign-born population who reported France as their place of birth.

Historical Population Trends

The number of people reporting French ancestry in the United States has steadily declined since the 1980s when the Census Bureau began collecting data on ancestry.

About 13 million people reported French ancestry in 1980 – 6% of the total U.S. population (Figure 1). The number decreased to around 8 million (3% of the total U.S. population) by 2020 and about 6 million (2%) in 2022.

Figure 1. U.S. Population With French Ancestry: 1980, 2000 and 2022

Where They Live

As Figures 2 and 3 show, California was the state with the highest number of people with French ancestry (515,811) and foreign-born from France (40,250).

Louisiana, Texas and Florida had the next highest number of people with French ancestry while New York, Florida and Texas had the next highest number who were born in France.

Figure 2. States With the Largest Populations Reporting French Ancestry: 2022

Figure 3. States With the Largest Foreign-Born Populations From France: 2022

Age

Figure 4 shows that in 2022 the median ages of those with French roots, whether through ancestry (47.4) or place of birth (46.3), did not differ significantly – and were older than the median age (39.0) of the total U.S. population.

Figure 4. Median Age of U.S. Population by French Ancestry and Place of Birth: 2022

Education

A larger share of the foreign-born from France (67.7%) had a bachelor’s degree than the total U.S. population (35.7%) and those with French ancestry (41.2%).

Figure 5. Percentage of U.S. Population With a Bachelor's Degree or Higher by French Ancestry and Place of Birth: 2022

Labor Force

Figure 6 shows that the foreign-born population age 16 and over from France was more likely to be in the labor force (67.0%) than the total U.S. population (63.5%) and those with French ancestry (61.3%).

Occupation

In 2022, a bigger share of the foreign-born from France (71.9%) and those with French ancestry (50.4%) than the total U.S. population (42.5%) worked in management, business, science and the arts (Figure 7).

People with French ancestry and those born in France were less represented in all other occupation types except for sales and office jobs: 20.5% of those with French ancestry and 13.7% of those born in France had sales or office positions, compared to 19.8% of the total U.S. population.

Figure 7. Percentage of U.S. Workers in Occupation Categories by French Ancestry and Place of Birth: 2022

Household Income

The median household income of the foreign-born from France ($118,849) far outpaced that of the population with French ancestry ($80,527) and the total U.S. population ($74,755) in 2022 (Figure 8).

Figure 8. Median Income of U.S. Households by French Ancestry and Place of Birth: 2022

In summary, the U.S. population with French heritage, through ancestry or birth, was older and had higher incomes than the total population. It also had higher educational attainment and was more likely to have jobs in management, science, business and the arts.

The ACS Selected Population Profiles provide more information on the U.S. population with French roots and on other ethnic or foreign-born populations in the United States. The population profiles are generated annually and can be filtered for specific groups by choosing “Populations and People” or “Race and Ethnicity.”

Virginia Jenkins, Angela Buchanan and Joyce Hahn are statisticians in the U.S. Census Bureau’s Population Division.

Related Statistics

American Community Survey (ACS)

The American Community Survey is the premier source for information about America's changing population, housing and workforce.

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2024 Paris Olympics: U.S. Population’s French Connection