PARIS – France had more babies in 2006 than in any year in the last quarter-century, the state statistics agency said Tuesday, capping a decade of rising fertility that has bucked Europe’s graying trend.
The government trumpeted the figures as a victory for family friendly policies such as cheap day care and generous parental leave – many of which were launched under Socialists such as Segolene Royal, the presidential candidate who was family minister in the early 1990s, and have continued to grow under today’s conservative government.
France had 830,000 new babies last year, the highest annual total since 1981, the Insee statistics agency said. That brought France’s population to 63.4 million people as of Jan. 1, up from 62.9 million a year earlier.
The fertility rate was 2.0 children per woman, up from 1.92 in 2005 – and that might make France the most fertile nation in the European Union, Jean-Michel Charpin, Insee’s director, predicted.
In 2005, only Ireland had a higher fertility rate: the Irish rate was 1.99, to France’s 1.94. Irish figures for 2006 were not available.
France’s fertility rate has been climbing steadily since 1996, Insee said, but it still has not passed 2.1 – considered what it takes to replace a population in developed countries. The rate in the United States is 2.1.
Among its pro-family measures, the French government offers $970 a month to parents who take one year’s unpaid leave from work after the birth of a third child. Large families also get shopping discounts and reduced fares on public transport. French fathers are also guaranteed paid paternity leave, a measure championed by Royal – herself a mother of four.
French life expectancy is also on the rise, at 77.1 years for men and 84 years for women, Insee said.
The number of French marriages is continuing to decline as more French couples are choosing to form civil unions instead, Insee said.
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