Basic data and published tables

Information sources used
Since 2006, the statistics on foreign immigrant flows produced by INED have been based on a single source, the central database of foreign nationals in France (AGDREF) managed by the French Ministry of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Co-development. In previous years, minors entering France for family reunification were counted separately, via the statistics of the ANAEM (renamed OFII).

Apart from this modification, the database of foreign nationals in France is used each year, with no change of method, to determine:
- the number of adult foreigners entering France and obtaining a first residence permit of at least one year’s duration,
- the number of minors entering France whose parents are citizens of the European Union or whose mother is a refugee.

These two quantities are determined by INED on the basis of crude data from the AGDREF database. The total obtained is slightly higher than that published by the Ministry. In 2007, for example, INED counted a total of 192,535 immigrants, and the Ministry 180,736.

This discrepancy is due to the fact that INED uses a wider range of statistics, covering all nationalities, including citizens of the 14 original accession countries of the European Union (for whom an estimation, set at 40,000, has been used since 2004 following the abolition of residence permits for these nationalities). They also include inflows of minors, at a date as close as possible to that of their physical arrival in France. At the same time, INED’s definition of immigration is narrower than that of the Ministry. INED counts only holders of residence permits of at least one year’s duration (in accordance with the definition published recently by the European Commission), while the ministry counts all first residence permits, whatever their period of validity, i.e. including those of less than one year (excluding application acknowledgements and temporary permits).

List of available tables
Each statistical yearbook (accessible by clicking on "Annual tables of admissions") provides annual immigration statistics in table form. The following tables are available:

Summary tables

S1: Immigration by age group and sex
S2: Immigration by group of nationalities and by sex
S3: Immigration of the 25 most represented nationalities by sex
S4: Immigration by group of nationalities and by age group
S5: Male immigration of the 25 most represented nationalities by age group
S6: Female immigration of the 25 most represented nationalities by age group
S7: Immigration by group of nationalities and by reason for admission
S8: Male immigration of the 25 most represented nationalities by reason for admission
S9: Female immigration of the 25 most represented nationalities by reason for admission
S10: Immigration by département

Detailed tables

D1: Immigration by age and sex
D2: Immigration by nationality and sex (nationality in decreasing order)
D3: Immigration by nationality and sex (nationality in alphabetical order)
D4: Immigration by nationality and age group (nationality in decreasing order)
D5: Male immigration by nationality and age group (nationality in decreasing order)
D6: Female immigration by nationality and age group (nationality in decreasing order)
D7: Immigration by nationality and reason for admission (nationality in decreasing order)
D8: Male immigration by nationality and reason for admission (nationality in decreasing order)
D9: Female immigration by nationality and reason for admission (nationality in decreasing order)

Access to data

The INED website gives statistics on foreign immigrant flows from 1994, the year in which the central database of foreign nationals was first created. The yearbooks are in pdf format, and in Excel format from 2004. Tables can be supplied on request, notably for statistics at département level.

Data series are difficult to construct for years prior to 1994. The statistical yearbooks of the Office des migrations internationales provide some data which are analysed by Michèle Tribalat in the journal Population.