Press release on June 30, 2025
Birth rate: understanding the decline, removing the obstacles, restoring confidence among younger generations
France, like other developed countries, is facing a worrying decline in its birth rate. France’s population continues to grow slowly (+0.25%), driven mainly by immigration, while the fertility rate has fallen to 1.59 children per woman, its lowest level since the First World War. Beyond annual figures, analysis of final fertility (number of children at the end of reproductive life) reveals a reassuring stability: women born in the 1970s and early 1980s had an average of two children. Births occur later, but to date, they have not decreased in number on a generation scale.
Despite a still positive natural balance (+17,000), the continuing decline in births is nevertheless causing growing concern, both for the future of the social system and for the country’s demographic balance. The birth rate is not just a matter of numbers: it reflects the overall health of a society, its optimism and its ability to look to the future.
The French Academy of Medicine has analyzed the many causes of this phenomenon. Its report provides an overview of the situation and proposes concrete measures to reverse the trend. The decline in birth rates has not a single cause. It results from of a complex set of factors:
– Delayed pregnancy: the average age of first-time mothers has risen from 24 in 1980 to nearly 29 today. This can reduce the probability of having multiple children, especially if the decision to have children is delayed too long.
– Vulnerable fertility: nearly 15% of couples have trouble conceiving. The increase in the age of motherhood automatically increases the risk of infertility: one in two pregnancies fails after the age of 40. Other factors related to lifestyle and the environment can also affect fertility. The use of assisted reproductive technology (ART) is increasing, but it remains difficult to access and insufficiently supported.
– Infant mortality is increasing: while life expectancy has reached 85.6 years for women and 80.0 years for men, this is primarily due to healthcare and policies that favor adults. This progress hides another reality: infant mortality is rising, with 4.1 deaths per 1,000 births in 2024, compared to 3.5 in 2011. These deaths occur mainly in the first weeks of life. France, once the leader of European countries in terms of newborn health, now ranks 20th. This trend reflects a worrying imbalance: children’s health does not benefit from the same level of investment as that of adults.
– Social obstacles: housing, women’s employment, lack of accessible childcare, etc. are hindering parenting plans, particularly among middle-income women.
– A climate of uncertainty: young generations, marked by economic, health and environmental crises, are increasingly questioning parenthood, not out of rejection, but out of caution. ‘Eco-anxiety’, while not a direct cause of the decline in births, is weighing on young adults’ plans for parenthood.
The situation is not irreversible, and French women still want an average of two children, but they face numerous obstacles in achieving this goal. The generation born between 2000 and 2010, the result of a mini-baby boom, will represent a large cohort of childbearing age by 2030–2040. If conditions are favorable (housing, employment, access to parenthood, gender equality), the birth rate could rebound. But this requires removing the structural barriers that have been identified today.
The French Academy of Medicine proposes a pronged multi-action strategy:
– Create a universal child benefit simple and accessible from the first child onwards.
– Develop an effective right to childcare: create 100,000 nursery places, train and better remunerate early childhood professionals.
– Reform parental leave: introduce short, well-paid birth leave, shared between both parents and coordinated with a childcare solution.
– Make infertility a public health priority: improve prevention, treatment times and access to assisted reproductive technology and to oocyte self-preservation throughout the country.
– Reduce neonatal mortality: strengthen level 2 and 3 maternity units, pool resources, and create a national perinatal registry.
– Take into account ecological and social concerns: support young people in their parenthood projects, even in times of uncertainty.
– Establish reliable indicators and a national observatory to better monitor trends and act quickly.
But the decline in the birth rates is not inevitable. It reflects individual choices made in an environment that has become too unwelcoming for children. The Academy calls for a coherent, intergenerational and cross-cutting vision that restores confidence to an entire generation.
