On 1 January 2024, the population of France was 68.4 million, 230,000 more than on 1 January 2023. Natural increase fell to its lowest level since the Second World War, and since 2018, net migration has been the main driver of population growth. France is the second most populous country in EU-27 (15.2% of the EU population). Its population is growing slightly more slowly and is slightly younger than the European average but is ageing more rapidly.
In 2022, inflows from third countries increased, reaching their highest level since 2000 (282,957 people). The year was marked by a sharp increase in admissions for employment reasons (+4 percentage points) and a growing share of females in inflows (+15 points). France ranked 5th in Europe for migration inflows but ranked 21st if population size is taken into account.
In 2023, the historic decrease in births reflects the decline in fertility (1.67 children per woman), which fell to its lowest level since the Second World War. All age groups were concerned. The profile of age-specific fertility rates in France is similar to that of other countries of Western and Northern Europe, and in 2023 the share of non-marital births was the highest in Europe (65.2%).
Abortion numbers increased for the second consecutive year in 2023, and 8 in 10 abortions were medication-induced. Relative to the number of women aged 15–49 in the population, France, alongside Sweden, had Europe’s highest abortion rate in that year but was also one of the countries with the fewest restrictions on access to abortion.
The number of marriages increased very slightly in 2023, as did the number of civil partnerships (PACS unions), but only partially made up for the shortfall linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. The share of same-sex PACS unions and marriages remained relatively stable in 2023 and, with the steady increase in mean age at marriage, France moved closer to the pattern in Southern and Western Europe, where marriage is later than in Eastern Europe.
While the number of deaths fell between 2020 and 2023, it remained above prepandemic levels (2019). Life expectancy, on the other hand, was higher in 2023 than in 2019 for both sexes, although the rebound in France was smaller than that observed in some other European countries. Compared with other EU countries, mortality in France remained relatively low at the most advanced ages, although the country performed much less well for infant mortality and its lag increased. The gender gap in mortality was above the European average but decreasing steadily. While deaths from cardiovascular diseases dominate in Europe, cancers were the leading cause of death in France in 2023.

Articles

Which Highly Educated People Partner Together? Exploring Status Inequalities in Assortative Mating Among the Highly Educated in Sweden
By Margarita Chudnovskaya

This study examines the association between status and the probability of forming a homogamous childbearing or marital union among college graduates. It forms part of a broader inquiry into educational homogamy and hypogamy following the expansion of higher education and the shift from female under-representation to over-representation. Beyond the well-known shift from educational hypogamy to hypergamy, this study focuses on partnership characteristics among highly educated individuals. The sample includes highly educated partnered men and women born between 1972 and 1977 (N = 156,253), identified through Swedish administrative registers (via marriage and parenting records). Despite Sweden’s reputation as an egalitarian society, stark gender differences persist in higher education. The cohort of highly educated men is smaller compared to women and is more positively selected, often coming from upper service-class backgrounds and achieving higher degrees that lead to greater earnings. Multinomial logistic regression models were used to examine homogamy in detail, specifically measuring whether a childbearing or marital union was formed with a partner lacking post-secondary education or with a partner who had post-secondary education at a higher, same, or lower level than the index person. The results reveal that among women, significant socioeconomic differences influence the likelihood of forming a homogamous union. Although inequalities in homogamy were also observed for men, variables such as the type of degree or duration of the program were less predictive compared to women.

Gender and Social Class Inequalities in Child Psychomotor Development: A Sociological Approach
By Inès Malroux, Lidia Panico, Michelle Kelly-Irving, Translated by Catriona Dutreuilh

During early childhood, the acquisition of bodily autonomy, language, and motor skills varies according to the social characteristics of children and their families. This article describes inequalities in child development by gender and social class, and at the intersection between these two social relationships. The study is based on ELFE (Étude longitudinale française depuis l’enfance) survey data collected from a vast cohort of more than 18,000 children aged around 3.5 years who were born in metropolitan France (mainland France and Corsica) and whose skills were assessed in the following areas: language, motor skills, self-help, social skills, letters, and numbers. Our results echo the literature on the differentiation of forms of learning that are most useful at school and highlight the social gradient of language development in particular; however, they also show that this social gradient is reversed for self-help.

Intimate partner relationships are evolving, and non-cohabiting couples are attracting growing research interest. However, few studies have focused on parenthood in this context. Applying a new set of union categories, the 2016 National Perinatal Survey sheds light on the social profiles and childbearing trajectories of women in non-cohabiting unions at the time of childbirth. Are they different from lone mothers? Are these births planned? This research note uses statistical analysis to examine this group of women, long overlooked in major surveys. At variance with dominant norms, mothers in non-cohabiting unions represent 3% of births in France. They form a diverse population that includes very young women, often still in education, along with older women of foreign origin who are generally more highly educated and more often in employment than lone mothers. In terms of pregnancy planning and antenatal care, women in non-cohabiting unions are in an intermediate position: they receive more antenatal care than lone mothers, but monitoring is less regular than for mothers in cohabiting unions, often because they take longer to realize that they are pregnant. This suggests that these births are often unexpected rather than unwanted.