France registers slight spike in births after 6 years of gradual decline

In 2021, 742,100 babies were born in France, which means that there were 2,033 births per day, a soike after six years of decline, the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) said in its annual report.

In 2020, 735,000 children were born in France, the lowest number since World War II, reports Xinhua news agency.

The increase "puts an end to six years of decline in the number of births between 2015 and 2020", the report published on Thursday said.

There was a temporary increase in the number of births in March and April 2021, and again between August and the end of the year, nine months after the country's second Covid-19 confinement, the INSEE said.

While the three general Covid-19 confinements in France did not have the same impact on births, "at the end of each confinement, conceptions accelerated".

"Women aged 30 to 34 were the most fertile, with births up by 3.5 per cent. This increase is even higher for the older mothers, 4.8 per cent up for 35-39-year-olds and 5.3 per cent up for women aged 40 or over," the INSEE said.

--IANS

ksk/