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rfmcdonaldForbes' Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry argues that the French language is set to enjoy growing global prominence over the 21st century, largely as a consequence of growth--demographic, economic--in Francophone Africa.
To this, I'd add that France (and adjoining Francophone regions) are fairly rare in continental Europe in expecting continued population growth well into the 21st century. A relatively younger, growing population will make economic growth potentially easier to achieve. Germany, Italy, Poland, even Spain with its Latin American connections can't claim this advantage.
French isn’t mostly spoken by French people, and hasn’t been for a long time now. The language is growing fast, and growing in the fastest-growing areas of the world, particularly sub-Saharan Africa. The latest projection is that French will be spoken by 750 million people by 2050.
A study by investment bank Natixis even suggests that by that time, French could be the most-spoken language in the world, ahead of English and even Mandarin.
The study’s methodology is somewhat questionable, since it counts as French-speakers all the inhabitants of countries where French is an official language, which probably won’t be the case. And almost certainly, as a second language, English will remain the lingua franca (pun intended).
But the point still stands: French is still a fast-growing, global language. The other mooted language of the future, Mandarin, despite being excruciatingly hard to learn for most Westerners, will probably not be that given China’s certain demographic slide. Meanwhile, French will be present on all continents, and particularly predominant in a continent that, by 2050, should be a fast-growing economic powerhouse–Africa.
To this, I'd add that France (and adjoining Francophone regions) are fairly rare in continental Europe in expecting continued population growth well into the 21st century. A relatively younger, growing population will make economic growth potentially easier to achieve. Germany, Italy, Poland, even Spain with its Latin American connections can't claim this advantage.
