1968-2018: Four demographic surprises in France over the last 50 years
Collection: Population & Societies
n°553, March 2018
Abstract
Life expectancy in France rose by 11 years between 1967 and 2017, from 71.5 to 82.5 years for both sexes combined. The forecasts produced several decades ago failed to anticipate this spectacular progress, and life expectancy has still not hit the "ceiling" that was predicted.
The past half-century has also been marked by three other demographic surprises: the postponement of motherhood, with a four-year increase in the age at childbearing since 1977, the rise in non-marital births, which now outnumber births within marriage, and the invention and success of the PACS civil partnership; the number of PACS registrations now almost equals the number of weddings.