The economic crisis does not seem to have a hold on the French birth rate. The French continue to have as many babies, according to the National Institute of Demographic Studies (INED) which reveals the good French health in this area. The number of births remains relatively stable with 792,000 births registered in 2012 against 793,000 in 2011.
The fertility indicator is also doing well, with an average of two children per woman in 2012, a figure unchanged from 2011. Women who have given birth in 2012 were on average 30 years old. An age that has continued to improve since 1977 when it was 26.5 years old.
Birth rate: why France is resisting the crisis better
This maintenance of fertility is an exception in France compared to other countries. In the United States or in Europe, the economic crisis has indeed resulted in a downward trend in fertility, recalls the INED.
The institute puts forward several explanations for this French peculiarity: a less severe recession in France and the impact of social and family policies which would have “cushioned the shock of the recession”. So many factors likely to explain why France is spared by this drop in the birth rate. The INED also assures that, without this unfavorable economic context, France would have posted even more births in 2011 and 2012, “and the fertility indicator of the metropolis could have exceeded the threshold of two children per woman” .
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