A total of 21 countries in Africa speak French with Democratic Republic of Congo leading with the highest number of French speaking population.
All these African countries were colonized by France and they adopted French as either their native language or a second language.
Here is a full list of French speaking countries in Africa:
| Rank | Country | Population |
| 1 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | 77,266,800 |
| 2 | Madagascar | 24,235,400 |
| 3 | Cameroon | 23,345,200 |
| 4 | Ivory Coast | 22,701,600 |
| 5 | Niger | 19,899,100 |
| 6 | Burkina Faso | 18,105,600 |
| 7 | Mali | 17,599,700 |
| 8 | Senegal | 15,129,300 |
| 9 | Chad | 14,037,500 |
| 10 | Guinea | 12,608,600 |
| 11 | Rwanda | 11,607,700 |
| 12 | Burundi | 11,178,900 |
| 13 | Benin | 10,879,800 |
| 14 | Togo | 7,304,600 |
| 15 | Central African Republic | 4,900,300 |
| 16 | Republic of the Congo | 4,620,300 |
| 17 | Gabon | 1,725,300 |
| 18 | Djibouti | 887,861 |
| 19 | Equatorial Guinea | 845,060 |
| 20 | Comoros | 788,474 |
| 21 | Seychelles | 92,900 |
