[The French-speaking world in the future: an attempt to measure the population of la francophonie by 2050]

What will be the size of the population of la francophonie in the future? How is this population currently distributed worldwide and how will this change in coming decades? Will la francophonie be concentrated in a few regions? In a context where globalization often seems to mean "anglicization" we felt that it would be interesting to try to predict the future of la francophonie in looking at demographic trends in this regard on the various continents with the help of the latest United Nations projections. These projections produced in 2002 are based on a new approach that raises the possibility of a demographic future for our planet that will be very different from the scenarios predicted in the past. By using various definitions of lespace francophone along with the new UV data we attempt in this article to more effectively delineate the demographic contours of la francophonie in the future while also bringing out some of the political and social issues involved in this prospective exercise.