France has reached its first post-world War II“Demographic turning point”, with fewer births than deaths in 2025, figures from the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Research (INSEE-RRB- shoWednesdaysday.
Only 645,000 births and 651,000 deaths were recorded in 2025, according to INSEE. As a country with a strong traditional population structure in Europe, France used to lead the EU countries with a high birth rate. France had the second-highest fertility rate in the European Union in 2023 at 1.65 children per woman, but the latest figures show it had fallen to 1.56 in 2025, it is the lowest level since the First World War and far lower than the 1.8 predicted by the authorities. This shows that France is not immune to Europe’s widespread crisis of population ageing and falling birth rates, according to CNN.
Meanwhile, life expectancy in France reached a record high in 2025:85.9 years for women and 80.3 years for men; the proportion of the population aged 65 and over rose to 22 per cent, almost on a par with those under 20, the population is ageing further. In addition, fertility rates in France are low. One woman interviewed by France news said she was“More focused on her career than having a baby”, with one mother saying she was hesitating to have a second child because it was“Too difficult for her husband to take care of the baby while he is working”.
Demographic trends have triggered concerns in France about public finances and the labour market. France’s auditor general has warned that demographic changes will push public spending to record highs in the coming years. “With the retirement of the generation born in the 1960s, France’s tight labor market and labor shortages are likely to increase rapidly in the coming years,” said economist Olivier Crevel. “How to deal with the declining fertility rate and ease the pressure of aging will be an important issue for the French government to address in the future,” CNN also commented, although French women are having children later and later in life, the number of marriages in France is on the rise and“There haven’t been so many marriages in 15 years, which is probably good news”, said Pisson, an expert at the French National Population Institute.