Every 29-year-old in France is to receive a letter from the government reminding them to plan their family “before it’s too late”. Macron’s government is attempting to raise awareness about declining fertility and the risks associated with delayed parenthood. The initiative reflects mounting concern within Paris over falling birth rates and long-term demographic collapse. The dystopian decision to remind people they need to have children underscores a broader anxiety spreading across Europe, where population decline is no longer a theoretical projection but an unfolding statistical trend.
France’s Fertility Collapse in Numbers
The scale of France’s demographic shift becomes clearer when viewed numerically.
According to INSEE (Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques), France’s total fertility rate fell to approximately 1.68 children per woman in 2023, down from 1.84 in 2021 and just above 2.0 in 2010. In 2024, provisional data indicated a further decline toward 1.6, placing France well below the replacement threshold of 2.1.
The number of annual births has also dropped sharply. France recorded around 678,000 births in 2023, compared with over 800,000 annually in the early 2010s. That represents a decline of more than 120,000 births per year within roughly a decade.
The average age of mothers at childbirth has continued to rise, reaching approximately 31 years, compared with under 29 years in the late 1990s. Delayed parenthood has become the norm rather than the exception.
For many years, France stood out within Europe as a demographic exception. Its fertility rate remained significantly higher than that of Germany, Italy or Spain. That advantage has now narrowed considerably. France is converging downward toward broader European patterns.
Until recently, however, overall population growth remained relatively stable. That stability was not driven by rising native birth rates.
Immigration Isn’t Working Anymore
For years, France’s demographic resilience was presented as proof that the country had avoided the collapse seen elsewhere in Europe. In reality, much of that stability rested on sustained immigration rather than a recovery in native birth rates.
According to INSEE, France issued roughly 320,000 first residence permits in 2022, with similarly elevated levels in 2023. A significant share of arrivals came from North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of the Middle East, through family reunification, asylum and labour migration channels. The foreign-born share of the population has now risen to around 10 percent nationally, and substantially higher in major cities.
This inflow helped maintain headline population growth even as fertility among native-born French women declined. However, migration has always functioned as a demographic supplement, not a structural correction.
Fertility rates among immigrant populations tend to converge toward national averages within one or two generations. That pattern is well established in European demographic research. As overall French fertility falls toward 1.6 children per woman, the offset effect narrows. Migration can slow ageing, but it cannot indefinitely reverse it.
Moreover, immigration does not address the underlying causes of declining family formation among the native population. Housing costs, delayed partnership, career prioritisation and cultural shifts toward smaller families remain unchanged. Bringing in new residents does not restore higher fertility among those already in the country.
The result is that France now faces the limits of demographic substitution. Net migration has postponed sharper population contraction, but it has not rebuilt the birth rate. As fertility falls across both native and immigrant communities, the arithmetic becomes increasingly unforgiving.
France’s decision to directly urge 29-year-olds to consider having children signals recognition that migration alone cannot sustain demographic balance indefinitely. A society cannot import its way out of a cultural transformation in family life.
A Continental Pattern
France’s decline is part of a broader European demographic contraction that is now measurable across nearly every major economy.
According to Eurostat, the European Union’s total fertility rate fell to approximately 1.46 children per woman in 2022, down from 1.53 in 2021 and well below the replacement rate of 2.1. Southern Europe is even lower. Italy’s fertility rate has dropped to around 1.24, while Spain sits near 1.16, among the lowest in the world. Germany, after a brief stabilisation during the mid-2010s, has also fallen back toward roughly 1.4.
Birth numbers tell a similar story. The EU recorded roughly 3.9 million births in 2022, compared with over 5 million annually in the early 2000s. In many countries, the decline has accelerated since the pandemic period.
These trends are occurring alongside rapid population ageing. The old-age dependency ratio across the EU continues to rise, with fewer working-age adults supporting expanding pension and healthcare systems. In countries such as Italy and Germany, median age now exceeds 45, among the highest globally.
Despite differing economic models and welfare systems, nearly every European country faces the same structural challenge: sustained fertility below replacement level. The problem is no longer confined to individual states or temporary downturns. It reflects a continent-wide shift in family formation patterns that policy incentives alone have struggled to reverse.
So, Why is Nobody Having Children?
Europe’s fertility decline reflects a combination of economic strain and cultural change. The average age of first childbirth has risen into the early thirties, narrowing the window for larger families. Longer education, delayed career stability and later partnership formation mean many adults start families later than intended, often resulting in fewer children.
Economic pressures reinforce this delay. Housing costs have surged, secure employment arrives later, and childcare remains expensive. Even in countries with generous family benefits, fertility has continued to fall, suggesting financial incentives alone are not decisive.
Cultural priorities have also shifted. Modern societies increasingly emphasise individual autonomy, mobility and career development. Urban living, smaller homes and weaker extended family networks make raising multiple children more challenging. The result is not necessarily rejection of parenthood, but postponement and downsizing — trends that, across an entire continent, translate into sustained demographic contraction.
When the State Has to Remind You to Reproduce
There is something striking about the image of a government sending letters to 29-year-olds reminding them that their biological clock is ticking. For decades, Western societies framed family planning as a matter of personal autonomy, insulated from state messaging. The fact that a modern European government now feels compelled to intervene directly in the most intimate of life decisions reflects how far demographic anxiety has progressed.
The initiative may be presented as informational, even helpful. Yet it carries an unmistakable undertone of urgency. When birth rates fall to the point that pension systems strain and labour markets contract, reproduction shifts from private choice to public concern. The state’s involvement is no longer abstract through tax credits or childcare subsidies; it becomes personal, targeted and explicit.
The deeper question is not simply whether the letters will work. It is what it says about contemporary society that such a measure appears necessary. A country that once relied on cultural continuity to sustain family life now resorts to administrative reminders. That development suggests a society grappling not only with declining birth rates, but with a broader loss of confidence in the structures that once made family formation feel natural rather than strategic.
Final Thought
France’s decision to formally urge 29-year-olds to consider having children captures the gravity of Europe’s demographic trajectory. Falling fertility, ageing populations and stalled policy fixes have brought the issue out of abstraction and into personal correspondence. Whether such measures can meaningfully alter long-term trends remains uncertain, but the very existence of this campaign underscores that demographic decline is no longer a distant projection — it is a present reality.
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Categories: World News
Ever since roll out of ‘messenger’ Smart-protein with graphine oxide in con-vid jab, cancer rates skyrocketed, pneumonia related skyrocketed, heart attack skyrocketed, stroke skyrocketed and the only keeps goes downward is fertility rate.
Even mothers giving birth, the percentage of baby survived more than a week ONLY hit 15% mortality. Most of the baby WILL DIE having multiple organs failure.
Doctors still keeps refusing to say the main culprit is con-vax.
Only India & North Korea having upward birth/fertility rate.
India, only 10% population get the con-vid jab.
North Korea with 100% did not get con-vid jab.
The world fertility rates statistic showing alarming decline. World population now ‘maybe’ 3 billions only in 2026 compared to 8 billions in 2019.
The decline still rapidly goes downward & by 2030, maybe only 700 millions still alive.
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Well, considering the character of immigrants being forced all over the planet, I suspect some are just too darned afraid to bring rationally-raised, children of kindness, refinement and integrity into a miasma of unreasonableness, hatred, violence, etc., into the world, or their country.