With fewer births, a low natural balance and life expectancy stabilizing, France's population continued to grow slightly in 2024, reaching 68.6 million on January 1, 2025. However, the decline in the birth rate and fertility rate is set to continue. The fact that, for the second year in a row, the number of births has fallen below 700,000 raises questions about a possible demographic turnaround.

In 2024, the number of births continued to fall. This is one of the main findings of the demographic report presented by the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) on Tuesday, January 14. In 2024, 663,000 children were born. This is 2.2% fewer than in 2023 and 21.5% fewer than in 2010, the year of the last peak in births, notes the annual publication. It is therefore once again the lowest level of births recorded since the end of the Second World War. The decline has been continuous since 2011, with the exception of a single upturn recorded in 2021, following the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Whereas 2023 marked a clear break, in 2024 it's down again, but no longer so sharply," observed Sylvie Le Minez, head of the demographic and social studies unit at INSEE. In 2023, this politically scrutinized indicator recorded a spectacular fall of almost 7% compared with the previous year. In a speech that left a lasting impression, President Emmanuel Macron called for a "demographic rearmament." To revive the birth rate, he promised to launch "a major plan to combat infertility" and to reform parental leave, which is poorly paid and shunned by young parents – two proposals that came to nothing.

The fact that France's birth rate has fallen below the symbolic 700,000 mark for the second year running should not, however, obscure the fact that the country is still one of the most fertile in Europe.

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