Immigration in France: INSEE figures ahead of 2027 presidential election, Digi Mart USA News (France): Ahead of the 2027 presidential election, the national statistics institute INSEE has published new data on immigration in France. Nearly 8 million immigrants now live on French territory, representing 11.6% of the population.
Their number has risen for several decades, while their geographic origins have changed significantly.
According to INSEE’s provisional estimates, 7.97 million immigrants lived in France in 2025, compared with 6.85 million in 2020 and 3.2 million in 1968. Since 1999, the immigrant population has been multiplied by 1.8, compared with a 1.15 increase for the population as a whole.
INSEE cautions, however, that a change in the census methodology in 2024 calls for care when making historical comparisons.
The transformation of countries of origin is one of the most notable changes. In 1968, immigrants from the Maghreb and Southern Europe together made up 72% of the immigrant population; by 2025 this share had fallen to 43%.
Conversely, the share of immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa excluding the Maghreb and from Asia rose from 4% to 34% over the same period.
In 2024, 313,000 immigrants entered France with the intention of residing there for at least one year, a 10% decline from 2023. That figure remains above the 234,000 entries recorded in 2006.
Economic integration remains a major challenge: in 2025, the unemployment rate among immigrants reached 12%, compared with 7% for non-immigrants. INSEE also notes that immigrants are twice as likely to experience monetary poverty as the population as a whole.
These difficulties contrast with the qualification level of recent arrivals: 51% of immigrants aged 25 and older who entered France in 2024 hold a higher education diploma. Irregular immigration remains one of the major unknowns in French statistics.
INSEE acknowledges that it is impossible to determine precisely how many foreigners are in an irregular situation based on available administrative sources.
One indicator offers a partial view: according to data from the National Health Insurance Fund (Cnam), cited by INSEE, 454,000 people received state medical aid (AME) in 2025. That figure does not represent all irregular foreigners, since some do not receive AME while others may have been counted after regularization or after leaving France.
According to the Trajectoires et Origines 2 survey, 21% of immigrants aged 18 to 59 living in France in 2019-2020 reported having experienced a period without papers during their stay, and nearly six in ten had entered the country legally.
As the presidential election approaches, a key question remains: how can an effective policy against irregular immigration be pursued without precise knowledge of how many people are affected? The statistics confirm a significant demographic transformation of France over several decades.
They also raise essential political questions about the level of immigration the country wishes to accept, how to improve professional integration, and the consequences for housing, public services and public finances.
INSEE’s figures measure the scale of the phenomenon but are not sufficient on their own to assess all its economic and social consequences. Immigration is expected to remain one of the central subjects of the political debate ahead of 2027, a debate that must be able to take place freely, as petitions calling for the closure of CNews raise new questions about pluralism and freedom of expression.
