How many Americans live in France (and where are they all)

France is a popular place for Americans considering a move, but Americans make up only a small percent of the foreigners who have made their home here.

In total, 6 million of France’s total population of 69 million are not French – and of those 6 million, most (5.1 million) were born outside France. (This is not the same as the number of ‘foreign-born’ people, since people can be born outside France but have French citizenship, either from birth – through a French parent – or through being naturalised.

Of those foreigners, the largest group is Africans who make up 46 percent of the non-French population, with the former French colonies of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia supplying the largest number of people.

In second place are Europeans (including Brits), who make up 34.7 percent, followed by Asians on 13.2 percent.

Finally, making up just six percent of the total are all the people from ‘Americas and Oceania’ – comprising the US, Canada, Central and South America plus the Pacific.

In this context, ‘foreigners’ mean anyone who does not have French citizenship, so it does not include dual nationals.

Breakdown of where the foreigners in France come from. Graphic: Insee

Country breakdown

Because Americans make up a relatively small proportion of the foreigners in France, we have less official data about them.

The French national statistics agency INSEE regularly provides reports on foreigners in France, and often offers additional information on the largest groups – for example the type of residency permits they have, the age breakdown or whether there are more men or women. However, Americans rarely feature in these reports.

The most recent French data is from 2025, and it lists 182,000 people as ‘North Americans’ – that is, citizens of either the US or Canada – but the vast majority of these are Canadian (which is unsurprising since Canada has significant historic links with France, including several French-speaking areas).

The most recent published French census data, from 2020, lists 29,491 US nationals officially living in France. 

That’s up from the previous data released for 2017, which showed 28,000 Americans living in France.

These figures do not include French-American dual nationals – in a census, French citizens are counted as French, even if they also have another nationality.

There are often much larger estimates given for the number of Americans in France – ranging from 100,000 to 150,000 – however, this number includes students doing semester-long courses or placements, second-home owners, posted workers and other people on short stays.

The census data includes only those who consider France their main residence.

Growing numbers

The growing numbers probably shouldn’t come as a surprise, as the regular data on the number of new residency permits issued shows a sharp rise in the number of Americans moving to France.

The data shows that 15,000 Americans were issued their first carte de séjour residency permit in 2025, compared to 13,122 in 2024 – a 14.3 percent increase.

That is probably a slight underestimate since it doesn’t include Americans who have dual nationality with either France or another EU country and who therefore don’t need a residency permit.

The number is, however, dominated by students – half of all residency permits (52.5 percent) issued in 2025 were for students, many of whom will have completed a year or a semester of study in France and then returned to the US, having never intended to settle here.

So where do they all live?

The American population is heavily concentrated in Paris

Another popular location, especially for retirees, is the French Riviera, with towns including Nice and Montpellier popular with Americans for their warm, sunny weather and relaxed pace of life.

INSEE data from 2020 shows that of the 29,000 Americans living in France, 13,000 of them were in the Paris region of Île-de-France (of whom 8,491 were in Paris itself).

The next most popular region was the Riviera region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur with 2,722 Americans. In third place was Auverge-Rhône-Alpes, followed by the two other southern regions – Occitanie with 2,470 and Nouvelle-Aquitaine with 1,878.

Americans appear to shun the eastern region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, with just 553 Americans registered as living there.

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