On Tuesday, INSEE published its annual demographic report. Unsurprisingly, the pandemic has had a major impact on French demography.
Population growth slows
Despite the pandemic, the French population continued to grow, but less quickly than in previous years. On January 1, 2021, France had 67,422,241 inhabitants, or 0.25% more than in 2019. But between 2017 and 2018, the increase was 0.48% and 0.35% between 2018 and 2019. This decline in growth, between 2019 and 2020, is partly explained by the coronavirus epidemic.
Life expectancy has declined
In 2020, life expectancy fell by several months in France. A decline which is explained in particular by the excess mortality due to Covid-19, although this is not the only data. Men have lost more average life expectancy (0.5 years) than women (0.4 years). This increases the average life expectancy of women to 85.2 years and to 79.2 years for men.
Fewer births and more deaths
In 2020, 740,000 babies were born in France, ie 13,000 fewer births than in 2019, and 79,000 fewer than in 2014. But this phenomenon cannot yet be directly attributable to the pandemic. At the same time, the pandemic increased the number of deaths: 658,000 people died in France in 2020, from all causes, or 7.3% more than in 2019, according to the estimate by INSEE. The drop in births and the increase in deaths therefore lead to a very low natural balance, at 82,000 against 140,000 in 2019. The lowest since 1945.
