Demographic Winter: France Sees More Deaths Than Births for First Time Since WW2

The number of deaths outpaced the number of births in France for the first time since the Second World War and ten years before the official French national statistics bureau had projected.

Data published by the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) on Tuesday revealed that there were 651,000 deaths in 2025, an increase of 1.5 per cent over last year. The official statistician attributed this increase to a particularly deadly winter flu at the start of the year.

However, this trend is likely to continue, with 2026 marking the first year in which members of the baby boom generation will have reached the age of 80 in France, the head of the demographic and social studies unit at INSEE, Sylvie Le Minez,