Insee Focus · July 2026 · n° 383

Births in 2025 A Continuing Decrease in the Number of Births

In 2025, 643,905 babies were born in France, a 2.3% decrease compared to 2024. The decline in births observed over the past 15 years thus continued; in total, the number of births in 2025 was 24% lower than that of 2010. In the first five months of 2026, the decline in births continued.

In 2025, the number of births continued to fall among women under 35; the number of births among women aged 35 and over was no longer rising. The number of births fell in almost all regions of France.

The number of children of women at the age of 30 has declined from one generation to the next among women born after the Second World War. For those born up to 1985, this trend mainly reflected the postponement of childbirth. Indeed, for all of these cohorts, completed fertility, that is, the total number of children per woman by age 50, reached or even exceeded two children per woman. For women born after 1985, fertility by age 30 continued to decline. Although their completed fertility is not yet known, the latest population projections indicated that it is expected to decrease.

In 2024, the total fertility rate in France (1.61 children per woman) was the second highest in the European Union (1.34 on average), after Bulgaria.