If I was to ask you: which city is the most French-speaking in the world? You would surely be tempted to answer: Paris of course. But you would be wrong. For since 2016, the French capital city has been dethroned by… Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
According to demographers and urbanists from all around the world and behind the 18th edition of the Demographia World Urban Areas report, this major Central Africa city actually counts 12.83 million inhabitants. So, they calculated that, based on the inhabitant toll, Kinshasa is now the most French-speaking city in the world.
Therefore, according to the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF), 51% of the 90 million citizens living in the Democratic Republic of Congo speak French on a daily basis.
Right behind Kinshasa stands the Parisian conurbation with 11 million inhabitants, followed by Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire, Yaoundé in Cameroon and Casablanca, Morocco.
Here are the 15 most populated French-speaking
According to the International Organization of La Francophonie, today, there are 321 million French-speaking people in the world, scattered over the five continents. We can think of Quebec in Canada, French Polynesia in Oceania, as well as Swiss Romandie (French-speaking Switzerland) and Seychelles. Of course, accents and expressions differ depending on these regions in the world, but French remains very spoke across the globe. This is even the world’s fifth language in terms of speakers. In front, Spanish, then Hindi, Chinese, Mandarin and English – the world’s most spoken language.
