Market Research Companies in France

Key figures for researchers

Population

69.1 million (1 January 2026 estimate)¹

Metropolitan France and overseas

66.8 million in metropolitan France, 2.3 million in the overseas departments (2026)¹

Age structure

22.5% under 20, 22.2% aged 65 and over (2026)¹

Most populous regions

Île-de-France 12.6m, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes 8.3m, Occitanie 6.2m, Nouvelle-Aquitaine 6.2m (2026)²

Households

30.9 million, 2.1 people on average; 39% are one-person households (2022)³

Internet users

94% of people aged 12+, 84% daily (2025)⁶

Smartphone ownership

91% of people aged 12+ (2025)⁶

Digital exclusion (illectronisme)

62.2% of people aged 75+, 15.7% of all people aged 15+ (2023)⁸

Mobile subscriptions

117 per 100 people (2023)⁹

GDP per capita

about US$49,000 (2025)¹⁰

Research guide

Research landscape

France has a large and mature research industry, with Paris as its main hub and agencies also based in regional cities such as Lyon, Lille, Marseille and Toulouse. Full-service agencies work alongside specialist qualitative, B2B and healthcare firms, field and telephone centres, and online panel providers.

The research and polling profession is represented by Syntec Conseil, which published on 17 October 2022 a professional charter for studies and polls carried out by telephone. Political and electoral polls fall under a specific law (Law No. 77-808 of 19 July 1977): they are supervised by the Commission des sondages, a detailed methodology notice must be filed before publication, and for presidential, legislative and European elections no electoral poll may be published from midnight on the Saturday before the vote.

Languages and fieldwork

French is the fieldwork language for virtually all studies: the Constitution states that “the language of the Republic is French”, and the 1994 “Toubon law” frames the use of French. Questionnaires should be translated by native French speakers and tested before fieldwork.

The weight of the Paris region is a key sampling issue: Île-de-France has 12.6 million inhabitants out of 69.1 million, ahead of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (8.3 million), Occitanie and Nouvelle-Aquitaine (6.2 million each). The overseas departments (Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, La Réunion and Mayotte) have 2.3 million people. National samples may cover metropolitan France only: the official Baromètre du numérique, for example, surveys people living in metropolitan France. State clearly in your brief whether overseas departments are included.

Social class quotas use the INSEE PCS classification (professions et catégories socioprofessionnelles), whose 2020 edition has 6 socio-professional groups and 29 categories: farmers; craftspeople, shopkeepers and business owners; managers and higher intellectual professions; intermediate professions; employees; manual workers. Groupings such as “upper” and “lower” PCS vary between suppliers, so agree the definitions before fieldwork.

Which methods work

Connectivity is high: 94% of people aged 12 and over use the internet, 84% every day, and 91% own a smartphone; there are 117 mobile subscriptions per 100 people. Online surveys using access panels are the dominant method for consumer research, and online communities and video interviews are widely used for qualitative work.

Older people are less well covered online: in 2023, 62.2% of people aged 75 and over were affected by digital exclusion (no recent internet use or very low digital skills), against 23.4% of those aged 60 to 74. Telephone (CATI) and face-to-face interviews remain used for older or offline audiences; the official Baromètre du numérique itself combines online interviews with telephone interviews of people “far from digital”. In-person focus groups are usually held in dedicated viewing facilities in Paris and other major cities.

Timing

Christmas holidays run from 19 December 2026 to 4 January 2027 for all schools. Winter and spring school holidays are staggered by zone: in 2027, zone C (including Paris, Créteil, Versailles, Toulouse and Montpellier) is off from 6 to 22 February and 3 to 19 April, zone A (including Lyon, Bordeaux and Grenoble) from 13 February to 1 March and 10 to 26 April, and zone B (including Aix-Marseille, Lille, Nantes, Rennes and Strasbourg) from 20 February to 8 March and 17 April to 3 May. Check the zones of the regions in your sample.

May is fragmented by public holidays and “ponts” (bridge days): in 2027, 1 May and 8 May fall on Saturdays, Ascension Day is Thursday 6 May (no school on Friday 7 May) and Whit Monday is 17 May. Summer holidays start on 3 July 2027 for all zones; August is the traditional holiday month, when families and business respondents are hardest to reach, so avoid it for B2B fieldwork or allow more time.

Data protection

Personal data is governed by the GDPR and the Loi Informatique et Libertés of 6 January 1978, supervised by the CNIL, an independent administrative authority. The CNIL is active: in 2025 it received 20,150 complaints and issued 83 sanctions, including 21 for breaches of the rules on cookies and other trackers, which matters for online surveys and tracking.

Telephone sales canvassing is strictly limited: since 11 August 2026, the Bloctel opt-out list has been replaced by a requirement for the consumer’s prior consent (Law No. 2025-594 of 30 June 2025). These rules target calls made to sell goods or services. Calls made for a study or poll follow a separate regime: the law of 24 July 2020 requires them to respect public ethics rules set by the profession, including call days, times and frequency (the Syntec Conseil charter of October 2022). A research call must never be used to sell, so ask your agency how it keeps research separate from marketing.

Working with a local agency

• Share a clear brief: objectives, target, sample size, regions (metropolitan France only or with overseas departments), method, languages and deadline.
• Agree the quota definitions: sex, age, region and PCS group, based on INSEE references.
• For telephone fieldwork, ask whether the agency follows the Syntec Conseil charter on telephone studies and polls.
• Ask which panels or fieldwork suppliers will be used, and how fraud, duplicates and inattentive respondents are removed.
• Agree in writing who is controller and who is processor of the personal data, where it is hosted and the retention period.
• Compare several proposals: you can send one request to up to 5 companies from this page.