section_path: Demographics
section_name: Demographics
paragraph_text: Demographics
  
  With an estimated January 2024 population of 68,373,433 people, France is the 20th most populous country in the world, the third-most populous in Europe (after Russia and Germany), and the second most populous in the European Union (after Germany).
  
  France is an outlier among developed countries, particularly in Europe, for its relatively high rate of natural population growth: By birth rates alone, it was responsible for almost all natural population growth in the European Union in 2006. Between 2006 and 2016, France saw the second-highest overall increase in population in the EU and was one of only four EU countries where natural births accounted for the most population growth. This was the highest rate since the end of the baby boom in 1973 and coincides with the rise of the total fertility rate from a nadir of 1.7 in 1994 to 2.0 in 2010.
  
  As of January 2021, the fertility rate declined slightly to 1.84 children per woman, below the replacement rate of 2.1, and considerably below the high of 4.41 in 1800. France's fertility rate and crude birth rate nonetheless remain among the highest in the EU. However, like many developed nations, the French population is aging; the average age is 41.7 years, while about a fifth of French people are 65 or over. The life expectancy at birth is 82.7 years, the 12th highest in the world.
  
  From 2006 to 2011, population growth averaged 0.6 per cent per year; since 2011, annual growth has been between 0.4 and 0.5 per cent annually. Immigrants are major contributors to this trend; in 2010, 27 per cent of newborns in metropolitan France had at least one foreign-born parent and another 24 per cent had at least one parent born outside Europe (excluding French overseas territories).