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. 

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.

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 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. 

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 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%).

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.

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). 

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.”