According to a recent press report, France produced 830,000 new babies last year but this is considered to be not enough. Despite this being the highest annual total since 1981 and the fertility rate in France having increased to an average of two children per woman -- a high average by any standards, this growth apparently needs to get to 2.1 in order to be sufficient to replace the population. According to the state statistics agency INSEE this is the figure necessary to sustain the population in a developed country and though the rate has been climbing since 1996, it seems there is more to do! INSEE are quoted as saying, "The deciding factor comes from the fact that it is easier to reconcile professional activity and a family life in France than it is in most other European countries". The total population of France now stands at 63.4 million and it is one of the few countries where most of the population growth comes from births and not immigration.
Among the pro-family measures, the French government offers €748 a month to parents who take one year's unpaid leave from work after the birth of a third child plus discounts on shopping and public transport fares. In Australia this financial incentive to couples for having more children has resulted in the coining of a popular saying -- and one often hears of "plasma babies" -- couples who have another baby in order to buy a big plasma television screen with the government subsidy. With the average age in the Dordogne region falling as more and more younger people arrive to settle down to a new way of life, we might find quite a few plasma babies in the Dordogne as well, if the government incentive is effective.
With the summer heat arriving -- and another heat wave, worse than the canicule of 2003 predicted for this year, we might have to wait for a baby boom though!
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