French-Speaking Countries Quiz

Which countries count?

A country counts when the language is an official national language: named in its constitution or laws (de jure), or, where the law names none, the language its national government works in (de facto). A language that is widely spoken but not official does not count, nor does one that is official only in a region. We use the same 197 countries as our other quizzes: the 193 UN members, Vatican City, Palestine, Kosovo and Taiwan. Territories such as Puerto Rico are grey on the map.

French has about 320 million speakers, more than half of them in Africa.

Borderline cases

• Mali (not counted): French stopped being an official language in 2023, when the new constitution made the 13 national languages official. French is now a working language.
• Burkina Faso (not counted): A constitutional change at the end of 2023 made the national languages official and French a working language.
• Niger (not counted): Its 2025 charter made Hausa the national language and French, with English, a working language.
• Algeria (not counted): French is widely used in business, media and universities, but Arabic and Tamazight are the only official languages.
• Morocco (not counted): French is widely used in business and education, but Arabic and Tamazight are the official languages.
• Tunisia (not counted): French is widely used, but Arabic is the only official language.
• Lebanon (not counted): Arabic is the official language; the constitution leaves it to the law to say when French is used.
• Mauritius (not counted): French may be used in parliament and is common in the media, but English is the language of government.
• Rwanda (counted): Still official, alongside Kinyarwanda, English and Swahili, although English replaced it in schools in 2008.
• Canada (counted): French is official nationally, alongside English, not only in Quebec.
• French Guiana, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Réunion and New Caledonia (counted): French is official, but they are part of France, so they count as France and are grey on the map.

All 26 countries where French is official

Europe (5): Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Monaco, Switzerland

Africa (18): Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Togo

North America (2): Canada, Haiti

Oceania (1): Vanuatu

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