French is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. According to the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, in 2022, French is spoken by approximately 321 million people, all in all, while approximately 255 million people use French daily on five different continents. After English, Mandarin, Hindi, and Spanish, this makes French the fifth most spoken language on the planet, with more than 50% of its speakers residing in Africa. In 1999, the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) switched from a traditional census system which included population-wide surveys approximately once every decade to a “continuous census” with a five-year collection cycle based on smaller samples. France is the only country in the European Union that has not signed the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM). There is also no official national data on the number of Sign Language users in France; the French Ministry of Culture estimates that there are approximately 280 000 sign language users, including approximately 80 000 – 120 000 deaf French Sign Language (LSF) users. While France has not ratified the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages (ECRML), the French Ministry of Culture states on its website that “no fewer that 75 languages are recognized as ‘languages of France’”. Among the local languages not established by the chosen sources so far, but listed on this website are other varieties of Franconian, Burgundian-Morvandiau, Champenois, Franc-Comtois, and the Croissant dialects, as well as many of the 50+ language varieties spoken in the remaining post-colonial Overseas Territories of France (e.g. Hmong in Guyana or hamea-tîrî in Grande Terre, New Caledonia).