Distillers Country guides / France
France
A one-page guide to France for the spirits trade: the country, its people, its economy and how it drinks.
At a glance
- Capital
- Paris
- Official languages
- French
- Currency
- Euro (EUR)
- Time zone
- UTC+1 (UTC+2 summer)
- Area
- 606,410 km²
People
- Population
- 68.7 million (2025)
- Population growth
- 0.2% a year
- Living in towns and cities
- 78.8%
- Aged under 15
- 16.2%
- Aged 65 and over
- 22.5%
- Life expectancy
- 83.0 years
Economy
- GDP
- US$3.37 trillion (2025)
- GDP per person
- US$48,986 (2025)
- Economic growth
- 0.84% (2025)
- Inflation
- 0.94% (2025)
Alcohol
- Alcohol is
- Legal
- Legal drinking age
- 18
- Alcohol per adult a year
- 10.32 litres of pure alcohol (2020)
- What people drink
- Beer 25%, wine 53%, spirits 21% (2022)
Sources: World Bank (population, economy and demographics), WHO Global Health Observatory (alcohol per adult and drinking mix); Wikipedia: France; World Bank Open Data API (population, area, GDP, growth, inflation); Our World in Data / WHO GHO alcohol per capita; Wikipedia: Legal drinking age; BusinessCoot - French spirits market; IntoTheMinds - French spirits market April 2026; European Commission - Excise duties on alcohol; Wikipedia - Alcohol monopoly. Figures are the latest each source publishes; the year is shown beside each one.