Demography, population and ethnic groups: France is the 19th most populous country in the world. The total French population is estimated at 63,718,187 inhabitants, including approximately 60,876,135 inhabitants in mainland France. The largest cities in France are Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Toulouse, Nice and Nantes. French society has a great diversity of people and ethnicities. Ethnic groups include Celtic, Latin, Teutonic, Slavic, North African, Indochinese minorities, in addition to the southern Basque minorities. However, there is a significant percentage of immigrants in France (legal and illegal). In 2004, a total of 140,033 people immigrated to France, 90,250 from Africa and 13,710 from Europe. The following year, immigration fell to 135,890. According to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, France has approximately 4.9 million foreign-born immigrants, of whom 2 million acquired the French nationality.Religion:France is a secular country and freedom of religion is a constitutional right. Religious statistics in France show that the population consists of 83-88% Roman Catholics, 2% Protestants, 1% Jews, 5-10% Muslims, and 4% unaffiliated. However, these statistics may not be accurate in practice. According to a survey conducted in January 2007 by Catholic World News; 51% identified as Catholic, 31% identified as atheist or agnostic, 10% identified as other religions or no opinion, 4% identified as Muslim, 3% identified as Protestant and 1% as Jews. . The French political system is legally prohibited from recognizing a religion, and it only recognizes religious organizations, according to formal legal criteria that do not take religious doctrine into account. Religious organizations do not intervene in policy-making and it is forbidden to wear certain religious symbols in public institutions, such as the Islamic veil and the Jewish kippah, which have given rise to numerous protests among minorities, particularly Muslims. . Language: French is known to be the one and only language spoken in France, and it is considered the only nation in Western Europe (excluding microstates) to have only one officially recognized language. The French are proud of their language and do not like to be addressed in other languages ​​by non-French speaking visitors. There are other regional dialects such as Provençal, Breton, Alsatian, Corsican, Catalan, Basque and Flemish, but their use is in rapid decline. Other languages ​​such as Portuguese, Italian, Maghrebi Arabic and other Berber Arabic dialects are spoken among immigrants..