{"id":14144,"date":"2014-07-14T12:54:27","date_gmt":"2014-07-14T17:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/5-facts-about-the-french\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:21:45","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:21:45","slug":"5-facts-about-the-french","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/07\/14\/5-facts-about-the-french\/","title":{"rendered":"5 facts about the French"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FT_14.07.14_FranceFacts_640x300\"<\/figure>\n\n

Ah, la France. The land of wine, cheese, romance and abundant\u00a0vacation time… right? As France celebrates the national holiday of Bastille Day, we set the record straight. Here are five common stereotypes about the French, and the facts that prove them right or wrong.<\/p>\n\n

The French don’t care about affairs.<\/strong> Extramarital affairs are widely viewed as morally unacceptable around the world, with one\u00a0notable exception: France. Only\u00a047% of the French said<\/a> having an extramarital affair was morally unacceptable in our 2013 survey, while four-in-ten thought it was not a moral issue, and\u00a012% said it was actually morally acceptable.\u00a0France was the only country out of the 40 we surveyed where less than half of respondents described infidelity as unacceptable. This laissez-faire attitude also extends to premarital sex<\/a>: only 6% of the French view it as morally unacceptable.<\/p>\n\n

The French work less and vacation more than most others.<\/strong> People in France work 1,479 hours a year<\/a>, much less than the OECD average of 1,765 hours and\u00a0the U.S. average of 1,790 hours. France also has the most generous amount of paid vacation<\/a>\u00a0among 21 of the world’s wealthiest nations, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research.\u00a0The French enjoy\u00a030 paid days off each year, an amount\u00a050%\u00a0higher than the EU-mandated minimum of 20 days. The U.S. is the only country in the group that does not legally require employers to provide paid annual leave, though many U.S.\u00a0employers do\u00a0offer\u00a0it to their employees.<\/p>\n\n

Drinking is a part of life in France.<\/strong>\u00a0Not for everyone. While the French public is the second-most likely to say that\u00a0drinking alcohol is not a moral issue<\/a>\u00a0(after Canadians), about one-in-five (18%) of the French say consuming alcohol is morally unacceptable, twice the share\u00a0in Canada and about the same as\u00a0in the U.S., where 16% say this.<\/p>\n\n

\u00a0The\u00a0French\u00a0drink the most wine.\u00a0<\/strong>Not anymore, according to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine, which estimates\u00a0the U.S. overtook France in 2013<\/a> as the leader in national wine consumption, quaffing 2.9 billion liters of wine (excluding vermouth and special wines), compared with France’s 2.8 billion. Of course, the U.S. also has a much larger population than France. Looking at a per capita basis, the\u00a0French far outdrink Americans, consuming about 44 liters in 2013, just over a bottle a week, while Americans drank about 9 liters, or a bottle a month.<\/p>\n\n

The French eat the most cheese. <\/strong>The French consumed 52.7 pounds of cheese per capita in 2009<\/a>, well behind\u00a0Greece’s whopping 68.3 pounds. And\u00a0France produced 2.1 million tons of cheese<\/a> in 2013, according to Eurostat, behind Germany’s 2.4 million tons. You thought Americans ate a lot of cheese? According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, they ate a mere 33.5 pounds of cheese in 2012<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ah, la France. The land of wine, cheese, romance and abundant vacation time… right?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[453,371],"bylines":[932],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[516,514],"research-teams":[525],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-14144","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-leisure","category-lifestyle","bylines-andrea-caumont","formats-short-read","regions-countries-europe-russia","regions-countries-international","research-teams-global"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":454,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/07\/14\/5-facts-about-the-french\/","art_direction":{"A1":{"id":26372,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/07\/FT_14.07.14_FranceFacts_640x300-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/07\/FT_14.07.14_FranceFacts_640x300-jpg.webp?w=564&h=300&crop=1","width":564,"height":300,"chartArt":false},"A2":{"id":26372,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/07\/FT_14.07.14_FranceFacts_640x300-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/07\/FT_14.07.14_FranceFacts_640x300-jpg.webp?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"A3":{"id":26372,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/07\/FT_14.07.14_FranceFacts_640x300-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/07\/FT_14.07.14_FranceFacts_640x300-jpg.webp?w=194&h=110&crop=1","width":194,"height":110,"chartArt":false},"A4":{"id":26372,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/07\/FT_14.07.14_FranceFacts_640x300-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/07\/FT_14.07.14_FranceFacts_640x300-jpg.webp?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"XL":{"id":26372,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/07\/FT_14.07.14_FranceFacts_640x300-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/07\/FT_14.07.14_FranceFacts_640x300-jpg.webp?w=640&h=300&crop=1","width":640,"height":300,"chartArt":false},"social":{"id":26372,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/07\/FT_14.07.14_FranceFacts_640x300-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/07\/FT_14.07.14_FranceFacts_640x300-jpg.webp?w=640&h=300&crop=1","width":640,"height":300,"chartArt":false}},"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"5 facts about the French","description":"Ah, la France. 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