Finally, more babies!
A total of 742,100 children were born in France in 2021, according to birth figures published this Thursday by INSEE.
This represents an increase of 0.9% compared to 2020 and marks the first increase in the number of births in one year since 2015, after six consecutive years of decline.
These are 6,900 births more than in 2020, even though it was a leap year, therefore with one day more than in 2021. If we neutralize this difference, the increase even rises to 1.2 % over the year.
If the year 2021 had started badly, with a drastic drop in the number of births in January 2021 compared to the same period the previous year (-13.2%), this birth rate deficit was largely compensated for in the second half of the year. , with each month an increase in the number of births compared to the same month the previous year.
This strong rise has thus made it possible to catch up with and then exceed the level of births for the year 2020.
Confinements have shaken up baby's plans
The different confinements have not all had the same impact on births.
If the confinement of spring 2020 strongly postponed the plans for children of certain couples and caused a drop in the birth rate at the beginning of 2021, nine months later, the successive reconfinements had much less consequences.
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In January 2022, nine months after the third confinement in April 2021, births fell again (-2.9%), but rose sharply in February, nine months after the end of confinement, according to provisional figures from INSEE.
From what to deduce a trend: the French have often delayed their baby project during the confinements, but a peak of birth is often observed nine months after the end of these.
Ever older mothers
Among the youngest, the number of babies is decreasing, unlike women over 30 years old.
Births to mothers under 20 fell by nearly a quarter year on year in January 2021, nine months after the first lockdown.
A lesser but confirmed trend among mothers aged 20 to 29.
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Ultimately, over the whole of 2021, the number of births to mothers under 30 is down compared to 2020, and in particular among those under 25: -8% for women under 20 years old and -5% for 20-24 year olds.
But on the side of mothers over 30, the trend is on the rise and it is they who are tipping the scales in favor of the increase in births.
Over the whole of 2021, for women aged 30 to 34, births are up by 3.5%.
This increase is even higher for the oldest mothers: + 4.8% for 35-39 year olds and + 5.3% for women aged 40 or over.
