Birth rate in France in 2024: the departments that plunge and those out of it

• More than 660,000 babies were born in 2024 in France, the INSEE announces on Tuesday.
• A figure down 2.8% compared to the previous year.
• In some regions of France, the balance sheet is even more worrying.

– Birth rate france 2024: departments

The French continue to have fewer and fewer children each year. For example, This is the results of the latest INSEE study published Tuesday, July 29. Consequently, 660,800 babies were born in 2024, a figure down 2.8% compared to 2023. Therefore, “In total, births in 2024 are 22% lower than their 2010 level”specifies the Institute of Statistics. Meanwhile, If the drop in the number of children is well observed birth rate france 2024: departments everywhere in France. Moreover, it remains more marked in certain territories.

“THE births decrease in all regionsconfirms Hélène Thélot, author of the publication, interviewed by TF1info. For example, Where the drop is the most important in 2024, over a year, it is in the overseas departments “. Consequently, The number of babies born last year fell 11.1% on average, against -2.3% in mainland France.

The volume of births remains up for 10 years in Mayotte. Furthermore, Guyana

Hélène Thélot, demographer at INSEE – Birth rate france 2024: departments

In detail, there were only 8,908 births in Mayotte in 2024, against 10,278 in 2023, a drop of 13.6% (taking into account that 2024 is a bissextile year). Martinique, Guyana and Guadeloupe are also very affected by this brutal fall of births. For its part, the meeting manages to limit the collapse with -8.5%.

The year 2024 becomes the first when the drop in births is stronger overseas than in mainland France. An unprecedented phenomenon but that INSEE manages to decrypt: “The decline that took place in 2023 in metropolitan France. of the order of -6.6% over a year, had not really been observed in the French overseas departments. We therefore have the impression now that they suffer. with a slight delay, which the metropolis knew last year”explains Hélène Thélot.

“The highest drop in births in 2024 in the French overseas departments is only linked to a decline in fertility in these territories. the number of women of age to have children being even slightly rising”underlines the report. The first data which goes back from the civil status registers for 2025. however, tend to show that the overseas departments will find an evolution comparable to that of the metropolis, birth rate france 2024: departments around 2 to 3%. “The volume of births remains up over 10 years in Mayotte and Guyana”tempers the researcher.

Only -1% in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

For the metropolis, “The drop is the strongest in Burgundy-Franche-Comté, with -4.2%”or a drop of 900 births between 2023 and 2024. If INSEE does not risk qualifying the figures as alarming, they are still obvious: on average, 82.77 babies were born every day in this region in 2014. They were no longer 60.98 last year.

Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes manages to get out of the game with more than 77. 800 births in 2024, a result which makes it the region of France where the decline is the lower (-1.02%).

Record fall in the Jura and dawn

On the Ile-de-France departments side, Hauts-de-Seine (+0.7%) and Val-de-Marne (+0.24%) recorded an increase, unlike Paris (-1.6%). Hélène Thélot offers birth rate france 2024: departments an explanation: “The analysis is complex but this can be a sign that families leave Paris. settle in the suburbs, for financial reasons for example. Therefore, there will be fewer and fewer babies in Paris.” Note that Île-de-France still represents 23% of the country’s births.

Elsewhere in France, the most important demographic declines are to be observed in low-populated areas, without large metropolis: Jura (-9.29%, 1,895 births), Aube (-9.3%, 2.594 births) or Charente (-6.31%, 2.662 births) and Vendée (-5.7%, 5,143 births).

Another teaching of the INSEE report: in France, “Births fell for women of all ages”. “The decline remains more marked for women under 35 years of age”with for example -4.2% for children under 25 and -3.6% for 25-29 year olds.

The number of births for women aged at least 40 years old only decreases by 0.1% but it is a new phenomenon. “It is only the second year when it drops. Until 2023, it was the only age group where we saw an increase. It means that it is not only a gap in the birth calendar because even older women make fewer. children”insists Hélène Thélot.

Can the trend be reversed in the future? According to the author of the study, the chances are slim: “We are birth rate france 2024: departments not at all attending a reversal. There may be punctually. in the years to come, regions where it will be better but we are clearly on a downward trend.”