Birth rate in France continues to fall

France’s population stood at 68.6 million as of 1 January 2025, a modest increase of 0.25% on the previous year, new data from Insee has found.

The birth rate in France dropped 2.2% in 2024, year-on-year, with some 663,000 babies born over the course of the year. This is a notable 21.5% decline on 2010, when the birth rate in France peaked, according to the data.

Fertility rate

The fertility rate stood at 1.62 children per woman in 2024, slightly lower than 1.66 in 2023. This, too, is in decline – as Insee’s Helene Thélot commented, “since the end of the First World War, this indicator had never been so low.”

France recorded 646,000 deaths in 2024, a 1.1% increase on 2023, however life expectancy remained at historically high levels in 2024, with women expected to live to 85.6 years and men to 80.0 years.

In terms of the number of marriages taking place in 2024, meanwhile, there was a slight increase, to 247,000, while the number of civil ceremonies declined to 204,000. Read more here.

Family structure

Elsewhere, separate data from Insee found that some two-thirds of underage children in France live in a ‘traditional’ family structure, while 23% live in a single-parent household, and 10% are part of a stepfamily.

Children living in larger urban areas of France – excluding Paris – were more likely to live in single-parent families than those in rural areas. Elsewhere, in France’s overseas departments, children were twice as likely to live with their mother in a single-parent family compared to mainland France.

“Children in ‘traditional’ families tend to grow up in more privileged environments, particularly with better-educated adults, compared to those in other family structures,” Insee’s Pierre Pora commented. “Conversely, children living with single mothers experienced less advantaged conditions: their mothers were more often unemployed, and they were more likely to live in overcrowded housing.” Read more here.