Which are the demographical and geographical characteristics?

We find that nowadays there are globally more than 150 million Francophones. Two of every three Francophones live outside of France, and in more than forty countries on five continents. We could understand la Francophonie as “a community, based on a common language, which believes in the unity and diversity of cultures". It should come as no surprise that French has for some time been one of the most widely used languages in the world, and for a long time it was the only language of international diplomacy. It is used alongside English as a working language at the United Nations, the European Union and the Olympic Games. However, there is a great deal more to the Francophonie community than simply sharing a common language.
Regarding population, in 2013, there was around 1 billion of habitants in francophone territories with a density of 34.36/km2 (89.0/sq mi), yet according to different sources, there are more or less 274 million of french speakers in the world. Organized by continents, Africa is the most francophone country having 150 million of speakers while Europe has around 100 million. Then, America has 20 million while China has 2.5 million and Oceania has the 1 million left.

Source: International Organization of la Francophonie
Therefore, situating in regions, we find that in 2015, approximately 40% of the francophone population (including L2 and partial speakers) lived in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas, and 1% in Asia and Oceania. In conclusion, 6.5% of the world’s population belongs to the francophone phenomena.
The French language is being used as a way to bring about a sharing and a collaboration that is strengthening those countries that have linguistic commonalties. As a result, people have an opportunity to come into contact with a huge array of cultural differences and diverse traditions, which fosters tolerance. As Staffan Zetterholm points out in the introduction of National Cultures & European Integration:

Cultural diversity implies different traditions for 'doing things,' different socio-economic and political models and formulas for regulating different domains of public or social life such as industrial relations, the welfare system and the banking system. These traditions differ as to the degree of public vs. private involvement, centralisation or decentralisation and bureaucratisation or emphasis of non-formal interpersonal ties. We often discuss the considerable difference between the French and British approach to administration, and the French formal legal tradition is contrasted with the more informal, pragmatic British approach...the greater the distance between the models of different countries and the more emotionally involved the populations are with their respective models, the more unlikely it is that a common policy on a supranational level can be established, accepted and implemented. (Zetterholm 1994, 6-7).

Therefore, despite the common colonial background as most of fellow regions have, what makes la Francophonie stand out is that the fact that 6.5% of the world embodies a common border far away from the traditional definition of nation-state: la francophonie directly comes from a linguistic approach, not from a physical limit. Therefore, the cultural and collective meaning which creates identity builds a much stronger sense of place by Seddon, 1972) that those who are solely geographically located together. From the president of France Emmanuel Macron to a french speaker in Côte d’Ivoire. Also, it should be noted that the development of la Francophonie enriches the institutional variety around the world, not only because of the role of the post-colonial countries in the decision-making, but because its linguistic foundations are not english-based  as pointed out by Brian Weinstein: 

Because America has a history since World War II of trying to dominate France politically; because of important economic rivalries between France on the one hand and the British and the Americans on the other in Africa, the Middle East and Asia; and because of the extraordinary attraction of American popular culture, English, the instrument of American politicians, business people and singers, is perceived as the great threat. Thus the struggle against English must be intensified (Weinstein 1989, 54-55).



Membership in La Francophonie includes some of the world's wealthiest countries (France, Canada and Belgium) as well as some of the poorest (Niger, Haiti and Laos). The actual list of Member Countries of La Francophonie: Belgium, Benin, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cap Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Communauté française de Belgique (Belgium), Comoros, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, France, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Haiti, Laos, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Moldova, Monaco, Niger, Romania, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Switzerland, Togo, Tunisia, Vanuatu and Vietnam.

Associated States: Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, Saint Lucia Observers: Albania, Macedonia, Poland

References:


- France Diplomatie. Ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires étrangères (2019) L’Afrique et la francophonie. [online] Retrieved, 5 november, 2019. Available: https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/country-files/africa/africa-and-francophonie/
- International Organisation of La Francophonie’s, WWW, retrieved from 8 november, 2019. Available: http://mediatheque.francophonie.org/English.html
- Mason, Moya K. (1999) La Francophonie: History, Structure, Organization, and Philosophical Underpinnings, Retrieved, 6 november, 2019. 
- Maurer, B. (2015) Mesurer la francophonie et identifier les francophones. Inventaire critique des sources et des méthodes. Paris : Éditions des Archives contemporaines,  2016, 230 pages.
- Middell,M. (2003) Francophonia as a World Region? Journal European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire, vol 10 (2) p. 203-220
- Seddon, G. (1972) Sense of place. UWA Publishing
- Tadjo, V. (2018) La francophonie doit en finir avec la géopolitique et se recentrer sur la langue française a Le Monde, 30 août. Retrieved: 7 November, 2019. Available: 
- Weinstein, B. (1976). Francophonie: A language-based movement in world politics. International Organization, 30(3), 485-507. doi:10.1017/S0020818300018385
- Weinstein, B. (1989) Francophonie: Purism at the International Level. In The Politics of Language Purism, edited by Bjorn H. Jernudd, and Michael J. Shapiro. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1989. p. 54-55
- Zetterholm, S. (1994) National Cultures and European Integration: exploratory essays on cultural diversity and common policies. Oxford: Berg Publishers. p.6-7



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