Overview
- The natural population balance turned negative in 2025 at an estimated minus 6,000 people.
- France’s population rose 0.25% over the year to 69.1 million on January 1, 2026, sustained by net migration of about 176,000.
- Births fell to 645,000, down 2.1% from 2024 and the lowest annual count since the end of World War II.
- Deaths increased to 651,000, up 1.5% year over year, with Insee citing large older cohorts and a particularly virulent winter influenza wave.
- The fertility rate declined to 1.56 children per woman, the lowest since the end of World War I, continuing a slide that reduced the natural surplus from about 200,000 in 2015 to roughly 17,000 in 2024.