10% of the population living in France in 2021 were immigrants, according to INSEE

Seven million immigrants lived in France in 2021, or 10.3% of the population, according to a demographic study by Insee published Thursday March 30, which explores for the first time in ten years the evolution of immigration on several generations.

So, “10.3% of the population living in France are immigrants” in 2021, in the sense of a person “foreign born abroad”against “6.5% in 1968”, writes the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies in its document entitled “Immigrants and descendants of immigrants in France”. More than a third (36%) of these people have acquired French nationality since their arrival.

Majority women

Among the descendants of immigrants, those of the second generation are more than 50% to have only one immigrant parent, and those of the third generation (who have at least one immigrant grandparent) are nine out of 10 to having only one or two immigrant grandparents.

The origins are diversified. Where immigrants were mainly from southern Europe fifty years ago, they now come mainly from the Maghreb, Africa or Asia. Thus, immigrants from Spain and Italy have increased from 882,000 in 2011 to 543,000 in 2021, while North Africans represent 2 million people (1.63 million in 2011). In total, almost half of immigrants in 2021 are from Africa (3.31 million out of 6.96). Women now represent half (52%) of this population (44% in 1968).

Immigration is concentrated in large cities, says the study, according to which 20% of the Parisian population is an immigrant, 32% in the department of Seine-Saint-Denis.