Insee Focus · November 2024 · n° 339

Births in 2023 An unprecedented decline since the end of the baby-boom

In 2023, 677,800 babies were born in France, 6.6% fewer than in 2022. This was the sharpest decline since the end of the baby‑boom. Births in 2023 were almost 20% lower than their level in 2010, the last peak.

The decline in births in 2023 involved mothers of all ages, including those aged 35 and over, for whom the number of births had previously been increasing. In rural areas, spared during the Covid crisis, births declined again.

The decline in births between 2022 and 2023 was steeper in France than in the European Union as a whole (-5.5% in the Union as a whole); however, between 2019 and 2023, it was less (-10%, compared to -12%).