Deaths in France surpass births for first time since World War II

For the first time since the Second World War, France documented more deaths than births, according to a report from the Population Research Institute (PRI). 

Key Takeaways:

• In 2024, France saw more deaths than births for the first time since WWII — 651,000 deaths vs. 650,000 births.

• France has focused heavily on abortion in recent years, and even enshrined abortion into its own constitution in reaction to the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the U.S.

• France's Macron administration has also turned its focus toward legalizing assisted dying, despite objections from groups representing people with disabilities.

• The country's choice to implement life-ending policies instead of policies that encourage marriage, family, and childbearing is at its own existential expense.

The Details:

“Declining fertility since 2010 and rising deaths as baby boomers age have pushed the nation into natural population decline,” the report revealed. “Unlike Germany and Spain, which offset losses more through immigration, France has no clear strategy. With fertility falling across Europe and immigration debates intensifying, France faces a future of economic strain, cultural uncertainty, and a population now shrinking from within.”

The country had 651,000 deaths and 650,000 births in 2024.

Earlier in January this year, a report by French mainstream media outlet Le Monde also described the country’s falling fertility rates: 

In 2024, the number of births continued to fall. This is one of the main findings of the demographic report presented by the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) on Tuesday, January 14.

In 2024, 663,000 children were born. This is 2.2% fewer than in 2023 and 21.5% fewer than in 2010, the year of the last peak in births, notes the annual publication. It is therefore once again the lowest level of births recorded since the end of the Second World War.

The decline has been continuous since 2011, with the exception of a single upturn recorded in 2021, following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Although France’s significant death toll compared to its birth rates can largely be attributed to the deaths among the Baby Boomer generation, its longstanding decrease in birth rates reflects underlying sociocultural and systemic failures, including socio-economic pressures (expensive housing, high living costs, and unstable employment) which disincentivize parenthood, as well as cultural changes (such as a weakening of religious and family ties).

The decline is occurring despite the country's payment of subsidies to families who have children.

The Role of Abortion

However, France’s anti-life initiatives are likely also contributors, like the enshrining of abortion in the French Constitution.

In March 2024, the French government shifted the country’s permissive stance toward abortion to formally enshrining the procedure in the country’s constitution, granting abortion the highest levels of legal safeguards and championing it in foreign policy. Pro-abortion advocates lauded the move, in tune with the anniversary of the “Veil Law” that decriminalized abortion, as a triumph for “reproductive rights”. 

But others noted how France’s move to enshrine abortion in its Constitution was a response to the repeal of Roe v. Wade in the U.S., rather than domestic “threats” to France’s abortion laws. According to some French lawmakers, transatlantic politics and legal developments do not justify amendments of national constitutions. One senator even stated: “This is not senatorial wisdom. We are reacting to an event that doesn’t concern us,” alluding to the overturning of Roe. 

Pro-life critics have pointed out the irony of how France’s politicians appear obsessed in broadening access to abortion instead of championing family life or childbearing. 

Promoting Assisted Dying

In May, the French National Assembly in May 2025 gave the green light to a piece of legislation permitting assisted dying for individuals in late stages of terminal illness — a bill heavily promoted by President Emmanuel Macron’s administration.

If the bill is implemented, France will join a host of European states that have legalized euthanasia under a given set of criteria.

Amid France’s demographic decline, opponents of the bill — including religious leaders and many medical professionals — have cautioned against weakening standards of palliative care as well as normalizing death as a solution to deal with terminally ill and vulnerable people. The state’s attitudes towards legalizing assisted dying seem to favor enabling death instead of purposefully channeling resources into prolonging and supporting life, giving off the false message that death is to be preferred over vulnerability and sickness.

Even the UN Committee for the Rights of the Handicapped lambasted France’s move towards legalizing assisted dying, stating:

Indeed, legalising euthanasia or assisted suicide, is equivalent to admitting that some lives are not worth living. Whether through an individual feeling, “my life is worthless”, or as seen by others, “it’s not a life”, a legislative device for euthanasia creates de facto a category of people whose life is of potentially lower value than that of others. The admission that death is a better outcome for a given category of people, is already a devaluation.

Denouncing France’s lack of efforts at suicide prevention at a juncture when the country is grappling with significant suicide levels, the same UN committee said:

... In France there is a high suicide rate among those suffering from autistic disorders or “psychosocial” handicap. This fact adds weight to the question of suicide prevention. It also throws doubt on the ability to achieve such prevention whilst at the same time opening the possibility of “assisted suicide”.

Certainly, the proposed Bill adopted by the National Assembly dismisses psychic conditions if they are not combined with any physical pathology. But it is well known that proponents of euthanasia are already seeking its extension.

In certain nations where it has been legalised, those suffering from psychic conditions have access to an administered death. The Committee establishes the link between the concrete living conditions of people and the risk of suicide....

The Committee also pointed out that "medical and legal experts: have "concerns" such as:

• "The eugenist mentality which transpires in the proposed Bill."

• "The vague nature and lack of rigour in the procedure proposed for assisted suicide."

• "The lack of support and information for patients (concerning palliative care in particular) and the normalisation of the concept of suicide."

France has a historical and religious heritage as a Catholic country that once championed the dignity of all human lives. But today, its government expedites abortion and euthanasia, failing to address the country’s mediocre birth rates.

While France’s preoccupation with legalizing euthanasia and permitting unrestricted abortion may pander to a niche group of ideologues and pro-abortion activists, the government’s cavalier attitude toward the sanctity of all lives risks alienating many citizens concerned about the country’s demographic decline, sustainability of the country’s pension and eldercare systems, and future. 

The Bottom Line:

Despite experiencing economic troubles, cataclysmic cultural shifts, and population decline, France’s future hangs in the balance as its ruling elite continue to adopt policies that disregard the beginning and end of human life and neglecting the role of the family as a source of the nation’s rejuvenation and hope.

Clearly, the French government’s endorsement of constitutionalized abortion and euthanasia is a tragic reflection of a society that does not place much value on the sanctity of human life itself — at its own existential expense.