The number of births in France in 2023 is expected to reach a historically low level.
- The birth rate is falling for the 17th consecutive month in November 2023, according to statistics published this Thursday, January 4 by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee).
- This drop in births is observed in all regions, with the strongest decreases observed in Corsica and Normandy (-8.4%). The least spectacular fall took place in Île-de-France (-5.6%).
- This can be explained in particular because there are fewer women of childbearing age, but also because the number of children per woman is also decreasing.
The slight increase in births at the end of 2021 following the confinements linked to the Covid-19 crisis will not have been enough. After 2022, the year 2023 confirms what has been happening for several years in France: the birth rate is plummeting in the country, according to statistics published this Thursday, January 4 by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee) .
A birth rate down 6.8% compared to 2022
November 2023 is the 17th consecutive month of decline in the birth rate, with 1,877 babies born on average per day, or 5.1% less than in November 2022. Over the entire month, this represents 56,297 births compared to 59,115. “Cumulatively over the first eleven months of the year, there will be around 45,000 fewer births in 2023 than in 2022, a drop of 6.8%.”, adds INSEE.
This drop in births is observed in all regions, with the strongest decreases observed in Corsica and Normandy (-8.4%), followed closely by Occitanie (-8.3%), then New -Aquitaine (-7.9%), the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region (-7.7%), the Centre-Val de Loire (-7.3%), the Grand Est (-7.2%), Pays-de-la-Loire (-7.1%), Brittany (-6.6%), Hauts-de-France and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (-6.4%), and finally Île-de-France (-5.6%).
#Births ???? | November 2023: Births still down compared to 2022https://t.co/Im7T6f4fEn pic.twitter.com/lV81Q4AURt
— Insee (@InseeFr) January 4, 2024
Decline in the fertility rate: how to explain this phenomenon?
“The female population aged 20 to 40, the ages when women are most fertile, has generally declined since the mid-1990s and has plateaued since 2016”, already reported INSEE in 2022. But that’s not all, the fertility rate, or the average number of children per woman, is also declining. It stood at 1.8 in 2022, compared to 1.84 in 2021.
Economic instability, high inflation, wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, global warming… Many factors can reduce the desire of the French to have children. “To start a family, you have to have hope. However, the younger generations are perhaps more concerned about their future”, comments to AFP Catherine Scornet, demographic sociologist and lecturer at the University of Aix-Marseille. Added to this are “libertarian reasons”, she explainsparticularly among graduated women who “are those who project themselves the most outside of motherhood, they invest and flourish in other personal or professional areas”.
