Fall in fertility rate becomes big challenge for provincial France

Colomiers in south-west France is modern, spread out – and not very attractive.

Young couples came here from the nearby city of Toulouse to have children because property prices are far cheaper. It grew rapidly and now has a population of 40,000.

However, fertility rates have recently declined across France, and Colomiers has seen one of the biggest falls – 31% since 2018.

France used to stand out from its European neighbours for the high number of children born per woman during her child-bearing years.

Its fertility rate still remains above the European average, but it is falling sharply.

The number of births in France in 2024 was the lowest since 1919.

In January last year, President Emmanuel Macron called for a “demographic rearmament” with new reforms making it easier for people to have children.

These included increasing the financial aid both parents receive while they look after their newborn babies, for up to six months.

But it may take years for the policies to have an impact on France’s demographic decline – especially as there have been four different governments in little over a year and the reforms have not yet come into law.

In a midwife’s office in Colomiers, Laurence Loiseau is weighing three-week-old Léonie – Caroline and Teddy Rivat’s second child.

The couple don’t know whether they will have any more children, but already they are well above the average for the Occitanie region, where the fertility rate stands at 1.53 compared with the national 1.62.

Laurence Loiseau has been a midwife here for 30 years and has noticed a change in mindset. Hardly any of her 32-year-old daughter’s friends have children, she says.

“They will try later in life but that means they will have more difficulty getting pregnant – and by the time they reach 40 it will be very difficult to have a second child.”

Ms Loiseau adds she still sees families with three or four children, but that these usually come from poorer or immigrant backgrounds.

Raising children in France is expensive.

The last official government statistics a decade ago put the cost at about €6,800 (£5,700) a year to raise a child. Using those figures and including inflation, French economists say the figure now is close to €9,000 a year.

Margaux Biscaye – also a midwife in Colomiers – meets a lot of young women who come to see her for contraceptive advice.

She says that for an increasing number of young women between the ages of 20 and 30 having children is not a priority.

Some simply don’t want any, says Ms Biscaye: “Often because of the world we live in right now. It’s not a very optimistic period. Maybe they will change their mind but maybe not.”

Paola Godard, who is 27 and works in the music industry, is adamant she will not have children of her own, though she might consider adoption.

Although financially she would be able to raise children, she does not think she could provide them with a safe future, she says.

She is worried by the rise of far right and by the potential impact of climate change in 20 years’ time.

The Occitanie region is witnessing the second-fastest fall in the fertility rate across France.

Only Corsica is higher, because so many young people leave the island for job opportunities on the mainland.

Catherine Sourd from the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee) told the BBC the birth rate in Occitanie fell by 8.5% in 2023, compared with 6.5% nationally.

Ms Sourd says the fall is even steeper among women aged between 24 and 35, who are usually the most fertile.

Women are delaying having their first child compared with previous generations and settling into long-term relationships later in life, she says.

At the same time, the current economic uncertainty is weighing on young people’s minds.

The same uncertainty during the financial crisis in 2008 also had a big impact on fertility in France and across Western Europe, with a sharp downward blip in births back then too, Ms Sourd says.

In Colomiers the number of primary school kids has fallen by 10% in the past seven years.

Xavier Vuiller works in educational management at the Victor Hugo secondary school. He and his Spanish wife, Noelia, have just one child, 12-year-old Paolo – and that won’t change.

“My wife was very keen to pursue a personal career… so that she would have the same opportunities as I would have as a man. So we took the time to have a child and just one,” Xavier says.

He adds that the falling pupils numbers will be felt in his own school in a few years’ time as the dwindling number of primary school children move up to secondary schools.

The picture is similar further into the French countryside too, where fertility rates used to be higher. That’s no longer the case either, according to government statistics.

In the cosy village of Gratens, south of Colomiers, Farid Achezegag, a sculptor, lives with his partner Marion Savy, a teacher, their 10-year-old daughter Maelle and a very large ginger cat.

Farid and Marion agreed to have just one child.

“It’s the model I am used to – and I was quite happy as a single child,” Marion says.

“I love my work and when I thought about becoming a mother I wanted to also have time for me. I am not selfish – I wanted to offer my child essential time just for her and still have my woman’s life.”

Farid’s parents were Algerian immigrants. They had four children, but he does not want to go down the same path.

“Like Marion I was set on having one child,” he said. “Your relationship with children in a big family is not the same.”