Society at a Glance 2024 - Country Notes: France

Spotlight on fertility trends

In 2022, 725 997 babies were born in France, corresponding to a total fertility rate (TFR) of 1.79 children per woman, which is above the OECD average of 1.51 and the third highest TFR among OECD countries.

Across the OECD on average, the TFR steadily declined from 1960 until 2002. There was a small a fertility rebound until 2008, upon which the TFR started to an all-time low of 1.5 in 2022. The trend in France is different, as the TFR fell until the mid‑1970s, but stabilised thereafter, and increased from the early 1990s until 2010. In France, the TFR started to go down in 2015, but remains above the OECD average.

Figure 1. In France the TFR has been above the OECD average over the past two decades

Number of children per woman aged 15 to 49, France and OECD average, 1960 to 2022

Source: Figure 1.1 in OECD (2024), Society at a Glance 2024, https://stat.link/vxdlnc.

Many factors affect fertility choices, including employment of both men and women, unemployment, financial support for families (e.g. paid parental leave) and childcare supports) and housing costs (Figure 1.7, https://stat.link/8zu7m3 and Figure 1.14, https://stat.link/ois3k8). However other factors such as (financial) uncertainty as well as norms and attitudes also play a role. In many OECD countries, the desire to establish oneself in the labour and housing markets have contributed to a delay of childbearing. In France, the mean age of mothers at childbirth rose from 29.3 years in 2000 to 31 years in 2022, just above the OECD on average (Figure 1.5, https://stat.link/163n2d).

The fall in TFRs is related to women having fewer children and/or none at all. Childlessness has been on the rise across the OECD, but there is cross-national variation in timing and extent. In France, there was a rise in permanent childlessness from 12% for women born in 1955 to around 15% for women born in 1975 (Figure 1.3, https://stat.link/mvkw3b).

How does France compare?

Selection of indicators related to the chapter on fertility trends and other social indicators

Source: OECD (2024), Society at a Glance 2024, https://stat.link/vxdlnc.