France hits new peak for births
Country sees baby boom as it ignores the credit crunch with 828,400 infants born in 2008 – a rise of 1.2% on 2007
THE number of births in France is on the increase and hit 828,400 in 2008 – up 1.2% from 2007.
National statistics body Insee said there had been 796,000 infants born in metropolitan France and 32,400 Outre-Mer (in the overseas territories).
Births have now matched the peak seen in 2006 – which was the highest rate since 1981.
The secretary of state for the family, Nadine Morano, welcomed the figures saying they showed French people were thinking of the future in spite of the credit crunch.
Insee was updating provisional figures released in January that indicated the number of births was 834,000.
It said then that mothers had a fertility rate of 2.02 children and although this figure has not yet been updated it makes France the champion of Europe for births, matched only by Ireland. The average fertility rate across the European Union is 1.5 children per woman.
Iceland released figures last week showing its birth rate had increased by 3.5% – although that only amounted to 275 actual births in a country of 320,000 people. There the fertility rate has hit 2.14 – against 1.92 for the UK.
