This page is one of the annex pages of www.understandfrance.org, the foremost site on Franco-American intercultural differences. It contains documents, facts and figures illustrating the content of some of its pages.	Facts & figures	This page contains Facts and Figures about France and the French. Some are significant, other less so.... French economic leaders Wealth in France Diplomacy and foreign policy The "Roms" Naturalization	Table of contents
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Wealth in France...		Diplomacy and foreign policy
The 5 richest French people  are (Source : Forbes 2007, with their world ranking) # 7 : Bernard Arnault (LVMH : Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) $ 26 bn #12 : Liliane Bettencourt (L'Oreal) $ 20,6 bn #34 : François Pinault (Pinault Printemps Redoute) $ 14,5 bn #62 ex-aequo : Gerard Wertheimer (Chanel) and Serge Dassault (avions Dassault) $ 10 bn each More recent figures (Capital 2015) include the following to the 6 already listed the "Money" page : Patrick Drahi (Numericable-SFR, $11 b.) Francois Pinault (Kering) Vincent Bolloré (Bolloré) Xavier Niel (Free) Pierre Castel (Castel) Jean-Claude Decaux (JCDecaux, $7 b.) ... Pierre Omidyar (eBay, $5 b.) is # 16 In 2018, Bernard Arnault became the richest man in France, with more than $60 bn (Forbes). Inequality (income) as measured by RP10% (10% richest/10% poorest) (UNO 2011) and Gini coefficient (World Bank) for a sample of countries RP10% (2011) (*) Gini(**) (year) Belgium 8,2 33 (2000) Canada 9,4 33 (2000) Denmark 9,1 25 (1997) France 9,1 30,6 (2011) USA 15,9 41 (2000) UK 13,8 34 (2010) Germany 6,9 28 (2000) Italy 11,6 36 (2000) Japan 25 (2010) Sweden 6,2 25 (2000) European Union 30,4 (2009) (*) : In France, the 10% richest are 9,1 times richer than the 10 poorest. (**) Gini = 0 when all incomes are equal ; in France, the Gini coefficient went DOWN from 45 to 30 (1955-2007) and is slowly growing since 2007 (i.e. more inequalities)		Number of embassies and consulates :  (source : IFRAP 2004+ (updated)  Embassies  International Organizations  Consulates  Total  France  163  11  89  263  USA  170  11  72  253  UK  150  10  70  230  Germany  153  12  58  223  Italy  125  12  115  252   Culture and softpower Source : Le Monde 29/1/2017 Number of sales of rights of translation Pasteur institute Number of exclusive shops (Comite Colbert) Italy 1312     Germany 928     Spain 895     Poland 728     UK 353     Belgium 319 1   Netherland 291     Rumania 222 1   Portugal 189     EUROPE 5237 8 1500 USA 318 1 (Canada) 920 Brazil 219     Argentina 166     Lat.AM. 385 4 200 Egypt 32     Lebanon 95     Turkey 393     Middle East 520 1 280 China 1665 2 360 Japan 219   370 Korea 720 1   Taiwan 188     other Asia   6 610 ASIA 2792 9 1340 AFRICA   10 35 RUSSIA 464 1 90 TOTAL 9766 33 4365 (The Comite Colbert is the organization of French luxury industries)
Roms, Gypsies, Tziganes, Gitans, Manouches, Bohemiens, etc... Like many countries in Europe, France has had on her soil for several centuries a significant population of people of "Gypsy" origin. They have different names, some of them (about half in France) are nomads and others are "sedentarized". They came from India ten centuries ago and Romania has a large population of them, traditionally very ill-treated. They have a strong culture, with different forms and some beautiful achievements (in Spain, Flamenco, in France, jazz manouche -see more details-). In France, they are, of course, French citizens. They are very attached to their tradition and in general, their popular image is very bad ("chicken thieves" in the country, mobsters in towns). During WW2 they were persecuted by the Nazis, exactly like the Jews. Since the admission of Romania to the EU, the "Roms" (their name in Romania) can travel freely in Europe and, in France, their population has doubled (numbers are uncertain) and their condition has worsened. Roms are not nomads : they just try to escape their miserable Romanian villages to settle in Western Europe slums. Estimated numbers of their population are (Source EU Commission, reported in Les Echos Aug.20, 2010): Romania : 1,85 million Bulgaria : 750 000 Spain : 725 000 Hungary : 700 000 France : 400 000 (twice what it was before) Greece : 265 000 UK : 250 000 Italy : 140 000 Germany : 105 000, etc….. The EU rules are : - anybody can be admitted to another EU country for 3 months maximum : beyond that limit they must have a job and/or an income - after 5 years, they can't be expelled The obligations of French authorities are : - each city over 5,000 must provide a "decent" ground to the nomads for their mobile homes - all French schools must accept nomad children as they move with their family - when they expel Roms to Romania, they offer them a few hundred Euros, to make them accept a "voluntary" transfer. The Romanian government is largely responsible of the problem for the Roms and for other European countries. In the European budget 2007-2013, Romania received 3.7 b. Euros ($5.2 b) to improve the life of the Romanian Roms (education, jobs, housing) so they would not be forced to emigrate. By lack of projects, only 20% were spent ... Back to Diary.		Naturalization in France Countries of origin of people who acquired French citizenship in 2008 (Source : le Figaro 19/11/2009) : Morocco : 13,674 Algeria : 12,439 Tunisia : 4,436 Turkey : 3,333 Portugal : 2,269 Russia : 2,188 Serbia : 1,937 Congo : 1,633 Senegal : 1,278 Haiti : 1,121 Ivory Coast : 1,094 Cameroon : 1,052 Sri Lanka : 904 Rep.Congo : 895 Lebanon : 789 Average age : 38,9 years Occupation : active = 59,8%, non active = 14,6%, students = 9,8%, unemployed = 7,6% Back to French issues

French economic leaders

Warning 1 : in business, things change very quickly! Companies grow, decline or die, their activities may change significantly as they merge with others or sell their subsidiaries. It is impossible to keep this site updated ! Please consider what follows only as a way to identify the major French companies so you can get reliable and updated information on their site.

Warning 2 : please remember that the concept of "nationality" of a company is not as simple as it looks. Is it the nationality of the shareholders ? of the top management ? the country of the headquarters ? the legal status of its by-laws ? a mix of everything ?

1. The composition of the CAC 40 (the French equivalent of the Dow Jones for the 40 largest French corporations) in 2018 gives the list of the most important French international companies (Source CAC 40)

NB. The ranking (given by CAC 40) is not clear (check it) but it gives an idea of the importance of the company at the in ternational level.

2. Among a list on 100 French world leaders (from the French magazine Capital N°130 July 2002) : all the below-mentioned companies are # 1 in their field

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To related pages : more documents, etc...
To table of contents To top of the page  Back to home page	Harriet Welty Rochefort writes articles and books about France and the French. Order her books : "Joie de Vivre", Secrets of Wining, Dining and Romancing like the French, St.Martin's Press, New York, 2012 "French Toast, An American in Paris Celebrates The Maddening Mysteries of the French", St.Martin's Press, New York, 1999 "French Fried, The Culinary Capers of An American in Paris", St.Martin's Press, New York, 2001 More on Harriet's books (excerpts, upcoming events, testimonials, etc..)
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