Nearly 7,000 Britons have been granted French nationality since Brexit
The UK consistently ranks among the top five countries for people gaining French citizenship, with 6,863 people acquiring the nationality between 2021 - 2023
Numbers increased after Brexit
Diego Barbieri / Shutterstock
Britons are among the top nationalities receiving French citizenship since Brexit, data from the French Interior Ministry reveals.
Figures for recent years show numbers of Britons becoming French rose strongly from 2017 likely linked to the Brexit vote in 2016.
They then peaked at 3,577 in 2019, when they were the fourth most numerous nationality.
Since then Britons remained in fourth place after three North African countries (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria) until 2023 (the last year for which a breakdown by nationality is available) when they came fifth after Russia.
They are the only English-speaking nationality to have made the top ten in recent years.
In 2023, 1,522 Britons received French citizenship out of a total of 51,284 people to receive it that year (not including some 10,000 minor children who automatically became French when their parents did).
This is compared to previous years:
It means that between 2021 and 2023, the number of Britons receiving French nationality reached 6,863.
Overall nationality acquisition figures in 2023 were lower than usual due to delays linked to many administrative processes relating to acquiring citizenship moving online.
A nationality-based breakdown for 2024 is not yet available, however the overall number of people acquiring French citizenship is estimated to have risen by 8.3% compared to 2023, to the highest level since the Covid pandemic.
When these figures are available, it will likely push the number of Britons gaining citizenship since 2021 past 7,000.
Read more: How many Britons and Americans got their first French visa or residency card in 2024?
France naturally popular choice for Britons
In addition to the high number of Britons receiving French nationality compared to other citizens, France ranks highly among EU countries where Britons have been applying for citizenship.
France saw the highest number of citizenship applications by Britons out of any EU nations between 2021 - 2023 according to EU data.
Germany saw the highest number of British applications in 2019 and 2020, with France second in 2020 and third in 2019 behind Sweden also.
Note that the statistics quoted above for France do not differentiate between naturalisation by decree (eg. based on integration in France and at least five years’ residency) or declaration (eg. based on marriage or other family links).
Overall, decree is more common, however, with regard to Britons the proportion of one to the other has been roughly similar in most recent years.
Read more: Is it possible to apply for French citizenship while living outside France?
How does this compare to other countries?
Looking at other nationalities looking to gain an EU country’s citizenship, France has been the most popular nationality in recent years for Americans, topping the list of EU countries regularly between 2014 and 2023.
In years in which it was not in first place, it was second only to Sweden (2016, 2017, 2020) and Italy (2023) and usually only by a handful of citizens.
It has been the most popular option for Canadians every year during the same time.
