The table "Le clergé et la noblesse en France 1380-1780" gives the percentage of each order in the total population at several dates. For 1780, the table shows that the clergy and nobility together account for about 1.5% of the population, while the "Tiers État" accounts for 98.5%. A note explains: "In 1780, the clergy and nobility grouped respectively about 0.7% and 0.8% of the total population, around 1.5% for the first two orders (around 410,000 persons out of 28 million)."

Before the revolution, the Third Estate (le tiers état) comprised around 27 million people, or 97–98% of the population of France. Later in the same article this is restated more definitively: "The Third Estate comprised around 27 million people, or 98 percent of the population of France."

The article explains that under the Ancien Régime the third estate included all those who did not belong to the clergy or the nobility and thus formed "the very great majority of the population". It notes explicitly: "Forming the very great majority of the population (97%), it occupied the third place in the social hierarchy (the third order)." It also states that peasants formed the bulk of the nation, with "about 18 million peasants out of 28 million French people in 1789."

According to French historian Georges Lefebvre, out of the 27 million people who lived in France in 1789, no more than 100,000 belonged to the First Estate, while approximately 400,000 belonged to the Second. That left an overwhelming majority, roughly 26.5 million people, to the Third Estate.

The entry defines the third estate as the ensemble of persons who did not belong to the clergy or the nobility and formed the third order of the kingdom. Discussing 1789, it remarks that "It is the quasi-totality of the subjects of the kingdom who are invited to elect deputies" for the estates-general, though the political representation did not reflect this social reality. On the composition of the population, it notes: "Peasants form in fact in the 18th century the immense majority of the nation: about 18 million peasants out of 28 million French in 1789."

In pre-revolutionary France, the Second Estate constituted approximately 1.5% of the population. The Third Estate (Tiers état) comprised all of those who were not members of either of the above, and can be divided into two groups, urban and rural, together making up over 98% of France's population. There were an estimated 27 million paysans in the Third Estate when the French Revolution started.

The vast majority of the population belonged to the Third Estate (roughly 98% of 27 million people). As a proportion of the population, roughly 98% of France belonged to the Third Estate, justifying Abbé Sieyès’ description of the Third Estate as being ‘everything’.

This educational page on France in 1789 states: "Le Tiers-État représente l'immense majorité de la population soit environ 98% de celle-ci" ("The Third Estate represents the immense majority of the population, about 98% of it"). It describes the groups included in the third estate: day laborers in the countryside, peasant proprietors and tenant farmers, artisans, and urban bourgeois (bankers, legal professionals, merchants).

This general overview of the three orders notes that, under Louis XVI, the third estate "represented more than 90% of the French population and paid almost all the taxes." Citing historian Georges Lefebvre, it adds: "Of the 27 million people who lived in France in 1789, no more than 100,000 belonged to the first estate (clergy), while about 400,000 belonged to the second (nobility). There therefore remained an overwhelming majority, about 26.5 million people, in the third estate."

This “Third Estate” made up 95 percent of the population. Each order had one vote. Because the clergy and nobility frequently acted together against the interests of the Third Estate, the voting system disadvantaged the vast majority of the population represented by the Third Estate at the Estates-General in May 1789.

In 1789, the Third Estate made up 97% of the population in France. The Third Estate comprised all those who were not members of the First and Second Estates, and included peasants, working people and the bourgeoisie (middle class).

This pedagogical note defines the Third Estate under the Ancien Régime as the part of French society that did not belong to the nobility or the clergy. It states: "Il regroupe les bourgeois, les artisans, les paysans et les ouvriers, représentant alors environ 98% de la population" ("It brings together bourgeois, artisans, peasants and workers, representing then about 98% of the population").

The Third Estate included peasants, lawyers, and wealthy businessmen. They made up 96% of the population and paid all taxes. It also houses the bourgeoisie (middle class), who were increasingly frustrated at their lack of political power despite their economic importance.

This youth-oriented encyclopedia explains that the third estate designates "the greater part of the French population" under the Ancien Régime. It describes the society as divided into three orders, with two privileged orders that are "numerically very minor" (the nobility and clergy) and a vast category representing "the quasi-totality of the population: the third estate."

Each house had a single vote, which meant that the Third Estate, despite representing well over 90 percent of the population, could always be outvoted by the combined clergy and nobility. The numerical dominance of the Third Estate contrasted sharply with its limited formal political power under the old regime.

There were around 27 million people or 98 percent of the population, the Third Estate. The Third Estate comprised the commoners, including peasants, laborers, and the bourgeoisie (middle class), who shouldered the bulk of taxation.

This school summary on the French Revolution describes the social composition of France before 1789. It explains that the third estate, consisting of almost all of the population (peasants, artisans, and bourgeois), "represents 95% of the population." The other two orders are described as privileged and paying fewer taxes, unlike the third estate which must pay many taxes.

There were around 27 million people or 98 percent of the population, the Third Estate. The Third Estate comprised the commoners, including peasants, laborers, and the bourgeoisie (middle class), who shouldered the bulk of taxation. One of the main causes of the French Revolution was the burden of taxation on this overwhelmingly large estate.

Since the Middle Ages, France's population was divided into three orders or estates: the clergy (First Estate), the nobility (Second Estate), and the commoners (Third Estate). Peasants made up 75 to 80 percent of the Third Estate and owned about 35 to 40 percent of the land, showing how the majority of the population was concentrated in the Third Estate rather than in the clergy or nobility.

The Third Estate made up 97% of the population and paid almost all the taxes. The Third Estate was the poorest Estate in the country, and they had to pay about half their income for taxes.

In this educational video on the clergy, nobility and third estate, the presenter explains that in early modern France the clergy represented about 1% of the population and the nobility about 2%, so "97% of the population represents the third estate." Later the presenter reiterates that the "third order, the third estate, groups 97% of the population" and is composed of the rest of the population, mainly peasants and other commoners.

Parce que la société de l’Ancien Régime se présentait officiellement en trois ordres : la noblesse, le clergé et le tiers‑état, ce dernier représentant environ 97 % de la population. (Translation: Because the society of the Ancien Régime was officially presented in three orders: nobility, clergy and the Third Estate, the latter representing about 97% of the population.)

In descriptions of pre-revolutionary France, the Third Estate is consistently characterized as the vast majority of the population, often quantified as more than 90 percent and in some educational materials specified as around 95–98% of the inhabitants. These figures indicate that claims placing the Third Estate at roughly "96%" of the population fall within the range commonly used by historians and educators to describe its numerical dominance.