Black French people
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Approximately 8-10 million (2014 estimate); NB: it is illegal for the French state to collect data on ethnicity and race. | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Saint Martin, Réunion, Mayotte, New Caledonia | |
| Languages | |
| French, French Creoles, New Caledonian languages, African languages | |
| Religion | |
| Majority Christianity or Islam, minority Irreligion and Traditional African religions | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Sub-Saharan Africans · Melanesians |
Black French people also known as French Black people or Afro-French (Afro-Français) are French people who are Sub-Saharan African (including Afro-Caribbean, Malagasy and Afro-Arabs) and Melanesian. It also includes people of mixed ancestry. France has the largest Black population in Europe, with over 60% of all Black Europeans living in France. The Paris metro area also has the largest Black population (3.6 million) of any city in Europe and the greatest proportion (30-40%) in Metropolitan France.
The absence of a legal definition of what it means to be "black" in France, the extent of anti-miscegenation laws over several centuries, the great diversity of black populations (African, Caribbean, etc.) and the lack of legal recognition of ethnicity in French population censuses make this social entity extremely difficult to define, unlike in countries such as the United States.