section_path: Demographics
section_name: Demographics
paragraph_text: Demographics
  
  With an estimated population of 68,605,616 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).
  
  For much of the 21st century, France has been 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 in the total fertility rate from a nadir of 1.7 in 1994 to 2.0 in 2010.
  
  Since 2011, France's fertility rate has been steadily declining; it stood at 1.79 per woman in 2023, below the replacement rate of 2.1 and well below the high of 4.41 in 1800. France's fertility rate and crude birth rate nonetheless remain the highest in the EU and among the highest in Europe overall, where the average is 1.5. The mean age of French women at the birth of their first child was 29.1, slightly younger than the EU average of 29.7.
  
  Like many developed nations, the French population is aging: The average age is 41.7 years, while roughly one-fifth of French people are 65 or over. It is projected that one in three French will be over 60 by 2024. Life expectancy at birth is 82.7 years, the 12th highest in the world; French Polynesia and the French region of Réunion ranked fourth and 11th in life expectancy, at 84.07 years and 83.55, respectively.
  
  From 2006 to 2011, population growth averaged 0.6 percent per year; since 2011, annual growth has been between 0.4 and 0.5 percent annually, and France is projected to continue growing until 2044. Immigrants are major contributors to this trend; in 2010, roughly one in four newborns (27 percent) in metropolitan France had at least one foreign-born parent and another 24 percent had at least one parent born outside Europe (excluding French overseas territories). In 2021, the share of children of foreign-born mothers was 23 percent.