France and the United Kingdom: demographic stability on the continent, stop-and-go across the Channel

Abstract

In the mid-eighteenth century, the population of France was four times larger than that of the United Kingdom (around 25 million versus 6 million). In the late eighteenth and nineteenth century, population growth was much weaker in France than in the UK, and by 1918 the two populations were the same size (nearly 40 million inhabitants). The UK population then continued to grow, so that by 1944 it was larger than France’s by 10 million (49 million versus 39 million). After World War II, France’s population gradually recovered, and since the mid-1990s, the two populations have remained fairly similar in size and increased at the same pace. However, recent population growth has been more regular in France and is due primarily to natural increase (births minus deaths), whereas in the UK net migration (the difference between migrant entries and departures) is the main growth factor.