Americans in France: the official numbers

The three numbers

For where they live, the 2023 census file gives a count by region and by département.

These numbers answer different questions. Do not add them up or set one against another. No official page we read gives the number of US citizens in France whatever their status.

What each number counts and leaves out

Valid permits (Eurostat)

Permits in force on 31 December, sorted by the holder's citizenship. Eurostat defines a residence permit as any authorisation from a national authority that lets a non-EU citizen stay legally. The data come from national authorities, mostly interior ministries and immigration agencies. People under temporary protection are left out.

This counts permits and not residents. Eurostat's metadata defines a third-country national as anyone who is not a citizen of the Union. A US citizen who also holds an EU citizenship is not who these statistics are about. A stay that needs no permit does not appear either.

First permits (Eurostat and the Interior Ministry)

Permits issued for the first time during a year to US citizens. Eurostat sorts them by reason: education, employment, family and other. The French Interior Ministry publishes the same flow, but only for the ten largest nationalities of each year. Americans appear in its table in the years they rank in that top ten. In 2020 they did not, so the ministry has no figure for that year. Eurostat has one (5,387).

A permit also counts as a first permit if six months or more passed between the old one expiring and the new one starting, so some first permits go to people who held a permit before. This is a flow: it tells you how many permits were issued in a year and not how many people stayed.

Born in the United States (INSEE)

INSEE's census tables count immigrants by country of birth: 38,000 people born in the United States in 2019. In INSEE's definition an immigrant is a person born abroad with foreign nationality, and someone who later became French is still counted. It comes from the census and not from permits. It is the latest year of INSEE's country table. The series since 1968 is below.

Two sentences the sources support: "43,948 US citizens held a valid French residence permit at the end of 2025" and "15,388 first permits were issued to US citizens in 2025 (provisional)". Nothing here supports saying that 43,948 Americans live in France.

France from 2008 to 2025

Eurostat counts 6,146 first permits for US citizens in 2008 and 15,388 in 2025 (provisional). The low point is 2020 at 5,387. We found no source that explains that dip, so we do not offer a reason. Valid permits grew from 25,392 at the end of 2008 to 43,948 at the end of 2025.

A light bar with an outline is a provisional value. Eurostat flags the 2021 valid permits figure as provisional.

The two sources give the same figure from 2014 on. Before that they differ a little: 2011, 10,161 (ministry) against 10,147 (Eurostat); 2012, 7,967 (ministry) against 7,876 (Eurostat); 2013, 7,619 (ministry) against 7,616 (Eurostat). We keep the two series apart and never mix them.

In 2025 the ministry lists 15,388 first permits for Americans, the sixth largest nationality, out of 377,462 first permits for all third-country nationals. Its page on residence permits in 2025, published 30 June 2026, says Cameroonian, Chinese and American nationals mainly obtain student permits.

Other European countries in 2025

Among the 27 EU member states France issued the second most first permits to US citizens in 2025 (15,388). It held the third most permits at the end of the year (43,948). The EU-27 total was 91,615 first permits and 369,853 permits in force. Each country applies its own rules and reports its own data, and Eurostat says the methods are not fully harmonised. Read the ranking as an indication.

Eurostat flags some of these values: Portugal (break in series) for first permits; Ireland (low reliability) for first permits; Ireland (low reliability) for permits held.

The students among them, counted by the ministry each year, are on American students in France. Every EU and EFTA country, with permits in force, new citizens and Social Security beneficiaries, is on Where Americans settle in Europe.

In 2024 France issued 13,122 first permits and Spain 15,638. Eurostat also reports countries outside the EU: Switzerland (4,583 first permits), Norway (1,303 first permits), Iceland (352 first permits), Serbia (299 first permits), Liechtenstein (20 first permits).

Why Americans receive a first permit in 2025

Eurostat sorts first permits into four reasons. These are the 15,388 permits France issued to US citizens in 2025.

These are Eurostat's categories. The Interior Ministry sorts permits by its own motives, so these shares cannot be set against a ministry share. "Other" covers every permit that is not for education, employment or family.

Why the headlines disagree

Reports on the 2025 permit figures have used two numbers for the same year: about 15,000 first permits, up 14.3%, and 15,388, up 17.3%. Both are first permits issued to US nationals. Neither counts applications. The ministry counts permits it issued. A report of 28 January 2026 gave 15,000 against 13,122 in 2024. The ministry's publication of 30 June 2026 gives 15,388. We do not know whether 15,000 was a rounded figure or an earlier count. Either way 14.3% is what 15,000 gives against 13,122, and 17.3% is what 15,388 gives. The 2025 figure is provisional and can still move. The 2024 base is final.

Percentages are our arithmetic on the published figures. The ministry gives 17.3% in its own table.

Visas issued to Americans

A visa is not a permit, so this stays apart from the permit figures. The ministry's visa publication of 30 June 2026 counts visas issued. A long-stay visa that serves as a residence permit (VLS-TS) spares its holder an application for a permit at the prefecture. We have not read how the ministry's first permit count treats these visas, so we do not add the two series or compare them.

In 2025 France issued 20,158 visas of every kind to US nationals, 20.1% more than in 2024. The ministry says Americans remain among the main recipients. It does not split that number between short and long stays.

For long-stay visas it gives only shares. Americans receive them mostly for two reasons. The ministry says nearly nine in ten of the "other" visas are visits.

For all nationalities together, 40.5% are for study or internship and 17.18% are in the "other" group. The ministry's "other" reason mostly covers visitors. It also covers au pairs, working holiday visas and returns to France after a stay abroad.

Born in the United States since 1968

INSEE counts immigrants by country of birth at each census. Its note defines immigrants as people born with foreign nationality abroad. INSEE's 2026 page words it as people who report a foreign country of birth and either a foreign nationality or French nationality acquired later. A person born in the United States who became French after arriving is therefore in the count. A person born French abroad is not. Neither is an American born in France, and one born in a third country appears under that country.

The count rose from 15,300 in 1968 to 29,700 in 1999 and 38,000 in 2019. INSEE publishes it in hundreds and gives no figure between 1999 and 2006.

The territory changes along the series. INSEE counts metropolitan France until 1982, then France without Mayotte, then all of France from 2014. It labels the census figures from 2006 on as readjusted in 2019.

This number differs from the permit counts because it counts something else: place of birth and not citizenship, and people living in France whatever their permit. It also differs from the range of 110,000 to 191,930 that an online encyclopedia page lists for Americans in France. That page describes its group as immigrants and expatriates from the United States plus French people of American ancestry, a wider definition than INSEE's. We did not read how its two endpoints are built. A different definition gives a different number. That is not a contradiction.

INSEE's newer figures, published 25 June 2026, put the United States at 0.6% of the 8.0 million immigrants living in France in 2025. They are provisional. INSEE warns that figures before 2024 are not directly comparable with 2024 and 2025 because of a better collection protocol, so we do not extend the chart.

Americans who became French

Eurostat counts the people who acquire the citizenship of a country, sorted by the citizenship they held before. Here that former citizenship is American. Its metadata defines citizenship as the legal bond between a person and a state, acquired through birth or naturalisation, by declaration, choice, marriage or other means under national law. The dataset sorts acquisitions by age, sex and former citizenship. It does not sort them by route, and it says nothing about whether these people kept their US citizenship.

France recorded 769 acquisitions by people whose former citizenship was American in 2024, against 652 in 2023 and 499 in 2008.

Among the 27 EU member states France ranks third for 2024, behind Germany (1,275) and Italy (824). Eurostat's metadata says German figures are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5 from 2018. Germany went from 225 in 2023 to 1,275 in 2024. We read no source that explains the jump.

Social Security beneficiaries living in France

The US Social Security Administration publishes how many people in each foreign country receive its benefits. The table counts them by where they live, not by citizenship. It is not a count of Americans, and a US citizen with no benefit is not in it. We use it only for what it says: how many Social Security beneficiaries live in France.

In December 2025 the table shows 18,702 beneficiaries living in France. 13,254 are retired workers, 76 disabled workers, 2,981 spouses, 2,083 widow(er)s and parents of deceased workers and 308 children. Their total monthly benefits come to 22,241 thousand dollars, of which 17,641 thousand go to retired workers.

For comparison, the same table shows 733,078 beneficiaries living outside the United States. The table lists a country separately only when it has 500 or more beneficiaries, and the total includes all foreign residents.

Americans buying homes in Île-de-France

One source, one year and one region. The Notaires du Grand Paris press release of 25 June 2026 counts purchases of existing homes in Île-de-France in 2025. It follows buyers who live outside France, whether French or foreign. Americans are the largest foreign group among them.

Buyers living outside France made 2,660 purchases, 1,340 by foreigners and 1,310 by French people living abroad. Americans made 260 of the foreign purchases, 19%, ahead of Lebanese, Italian, German and Belgian buyers. In Paris they made 220, 26% of the foreign purchases there. Next come Italian, Lebanese, German and Belgian buyers.

The release gives 713,600 euros as the median price for Americans in its section on Île-de-France, the highest of the main nationalities. Belgians are the lowest at 351,000 euros. In Paris the 864,000 euros of Americans is the highest budget of the ranking.

Read this narrowly. "Non-resident" means living outside France, and the release does not say where these Americans live. It covers existing homes in Île-de-France in 2025 and nothing else. It does not count Americans who live in France and buy here.

How to cite these figures

Eurostat lets anyone reuse its statistics, commercially or not, as long as the source is named. For a dataset it asks for this form: Source: [DOI of the Eurostat dataset], [access date]. For a customised version of a dataset it asks for Source: [Eurostat dataset datacode link], [access date]. Our figures are extracts for US citizens. Cite the dataset you used and the day you read it, for example:

Source: https://doi.org/10.2908/MIGR_RESFIRST, 28 October 2026

Source: https://doi.org/10.2908/MIGR_RESVALID, 28 October 2026

Source: https://doi.org/10.2908/MIGR_ACQ, 28 October 2026

Eurostat asks you to say when data have been modified. The figures on this page are Eurostat's values for US citizens, unchanged. The shares in the reasons chart are our own arithmetic on them. The other sources below are copied as they publish them. Eurostat is not responsible for how this page presents its data.

The other sources:

• Ministère de l'Intérieur, DGEF/DSED, "Les titres de séjour en 2025", published 30 June 2026, and its workbook (sheet "Primo-délivranc par nationalité").
• Insee, recensement de la population, "Immigrés par pays de naissance détaillé, séries longues depuis 1968" (Étrangers et immigrés en 2019), published 26 July 2022, with its workbook, and "L'essentiel sur les immigrés et les étrangers", published 25 June 2026.
• Ministère de l'Intérieur, DGEF/DSED, "La délivrance de visas aux étrangers en 2025", published 30 June 2026.
• US Social Security Administration, Annual Statistical Supplement, 2026, Table 5.J11, beneficiaries in foreign countries, December 2025. Earlier years come from the 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 editions of the same table.
• Notaires du Grand Paris, press release of 25 June 2026 (ADSN-BIEN data).

To cite this page:

EasyFranceNow, "Americans in France: the official numbers", https://easyfrancenow.com/data/americans-in-france, data read 28 October 2026.

Download all the figures as a CSV. Every row has its source, the query address, the day it was read and a flag for provisional values.

Methodology

• Eurostat. We read the datasets migr_resfirst (first permits by reason, length of validity and citizenship) and migr_resvalid (valid permits on 31 December) for citizenship United States, every reporting country, 2008 to 2025, on 28 October 2026. Eurostat last updated the first on 22 October 2026 and the second on 28 September 2026. Before using a figure we checked that the valid permits row for France in 2023 reads 38,181, to be sure we had the right row of a dataset with many dimensions. The definitions above come from Eurostat's metadata file for residence permits. First permits query, valid permits query.
• Interior Ministry. We read the workbook of 30 June 2026, sheet "Primo-délivranc par nationalité" (source MI-AGDREF/DSED, field France, third-country nationals). It lists only the ten largest nationalities of each year, so there is no figure for a year when the United States is not among them. The 2025 column is labelled provisional and the year before is final.
• Visas. The ministry's visa publication of 30 June 2026, read on 28 October 2026, on its page and in its PDF. 2025 figures are consolidated. A figure of +26% for American long-stay visas in the same publication sits in its section on Talent visas, so we do not use it as a figure for all long-stay visas.
• Press figure. The January figure in the headlines table comes from a press report of 28 January 2026, read on 28 October 2026. We quote it as printed.
• Acquisitions of citizenship. Eurostat dataset migr_acq, former citizenship United States, all ages and both sexes, read on 28 October 2026 (updated by Eurostat on 27 March 2026). The definition comes from Eurostat's metadata file. Query. France has no figure for 2006, so the chart starts in 2008 to match the permit charts.
• Social Security. Table 5.J11 of the Annual Statistical Supplement, Master Beneficiary Record data, read on 28 October 2026. One edition per December, from December 2019 to December 2025. We stop at 2019 because we read no earlier edition.
• Île-de-France buyers. The press release of 25 June 2026, read as a PDF on 28 October 2026. We copy its figures as published and add nothing.
• INSEE. The United States row of the two sheets of INSEE's workbook ("1968-1999" and "2006-2019"), read on 28 October 2026. Before use we checked that 1968 reads 15,300, 2011 reads 36,700 and 2016 reads 37,000 (the last two also match INSEE's older table published in September 2019). We found no later edition of this country table with a United States row. The 2025 share is read from INSEE's page of 25 June 2026.
• Provisional values. A value is provisional when Eurostat flags it p or ep, or when the ministry labels the year provisional. Eurostat does not flag the 2025 first permits figure, but the ministry labels the same figure provisional, so we mark it.
• What we do not do. We add no figure of our own and we do not merge sources: Eurostat and ministry series stay apart. We found no source for the number of US citizens living in France whatever their permit, and we do not give one.
• Updates. Eurostat's own article on first permits lists its next update as September 2027. The Interior Ministry's table is yearly and the edition we read is the one of 30 June 2026. The date on this page is the day we last read the sources.

The people behind the count are profiled on Who the Americans in France are. Two cities have their own page: Americans in Paris and Americans in Nice.

For researchers coming from the United States, a tally of what official pages say keeps each programme's figures with their date.

For Americans who give up their citizenship, the quarterly IRS notices counted one by one give the names listed per quarter since 2010.

A dated edition freezes these figures as read on 28 October 2026, with a PDF and a fixed citation form: Americans in France 2026.

This page is also available in French: Américains en France : les chiffres officiels.

The first permits series is also drawn next to US Google searches for moving to France: searches for moving to France and the permits Americans received.

Guides that rely on these figures: how to move to France from the US, the student visa for Americans and the carte de résident for Americans. How we check facts in general is on how we verify. Reporters: the press page sums up the main figures, with the contact.

What each number means: the definitions of every measure on these pages, from the publishers' own metadata.