In this edition of Entre Nous, we're discussing the French census, which begins its annual campaign this Thursday. We break down how it is carried out, why this year's questionnaire is controversial and why it is so important for municipalities in France to have this trove of demographic data. We also discuss the findings of last year's census and tell you all about the ups-and-downs of French demographics.
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00:00Time now for our Entre Nous segment and today we're focusing on French demographics.
00:05Solange Mougin joins us in the studio to discuss some of these facts and figures.
00:09Solange, great to see you.
00:11Why are we talking about this right now?
00:13Well, we're discussing this because starting today, the French census begins.
00:17In French, it's called le recensement, and across the country, agents of the National
00:22Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, or as people call it in French, l'INSEE.
00:27They will begin knocking on doors across the country, and they'll do this for a little
00:31over a month.
00:32The dates in mainland France are from January 16th to February 22nd.
00:37The days for overseas territories and departments are slightly different and run until March
00:418th.
00:42Now, how does the census work in France?
00:44Well, it is a yearly event, but not everyone gets called on to do this civic duty every
00:49year.
00:51But around 9 million people do, and across 5 million homes, they are questioned.
00:56Now, as for the methods, they're broken down into two categories.
00:59For those that live in cities and towns with less than 10,000 people, the census is taken
01:03every five years there.
01:04In places with larger populations, 8% of addresses are questioned every year.
01:09As for how it all happens, well, an agent is hired by l'INSEE to come to doors.
01:15In some places, they're post office employees mandated by the town, and they give out these
01:20log-in numbers for people to fill in an online questionnaire or to fill out a paper form.
01:25Now, the questions are pretty standard fare when it comes to censuses.
01:31They're about people's ages, occupations, housing situation, work, modes of transport.
01:37And they are also, and this is very important, anonymous.
01:40As l'INSEE, which is the only body that is allowed to gather this data, they analyze
01:45the figures, but not who filled them out.
01:49Now, the census questionnaires rarely change, but this time around, there's been a bit of controversy.
01:54Why?
01:55Yeah, you could even say there's been a backlash, considering the warnings from the French League
02:00of Human Rights and a number of unions.
02:02They've even called for people not to fill out one question in particular.
02:06So to break this down, this year, l'INSEE added three new questions.
02:09One's about whether you do télétravail or work remotely.
02:12The second is about health impairments, if they keep you from doing daily life stuff.
02:17And the third question, and this is the controversial one, asks where your parents were born and
02:22if they were born abroad.
02:24Now, this question is not mandatory like the other questions are.
02:29And the reason it has created so much controversy is because in France, questions about one's
02:34ethnicity or religious affiliation or sexual orientation, well, they are largely not allowed.
02:40Exceptions, of course, are occasionally made, but for the most part, French law says, and
02:44the Constitutional Court has backed this up, all citizens are equal before the law,
02:49regardless of their race, religion, sexual orientation.
02:52So if we go back to this controversy about this question right here, the League of Human
02:57Rights in France says the question of one's parents' origin gets too close to an ethnicity
03:03question.
03:04They say that they're worried that the data could eventually be used politically, considering
03:08that the far right and the national rally in the last campaign had stances towards
03:14about people's immigrant background.
03:17That fear, the fear, actually, is that it could solidify prejudices in the future politically.
03:24The other side says that those that back the question say that this is an important piece
03:28of the puzzle of finding out about who French people are.
03:32The League of Human Rights counter that argument, saying that France already does ethnicity
03:38studies and has data on this.
03:39It's just not part of a census, which serves, of course, statisticians, but also has a main
03:47purpose with a wider political and societal and electoral implications.
03:51So what are some of the implications here?
03:54Well, I mentioned earlier that like voting, this is a bit of a civic duty, because not
03:58only does the data provide, not only is this a trove of data, but it also allows the state
04:04to calculate how much money one city or town, depending on its population, how much they
04:09get.
04:10It has effect on municipal elections, how they're carried out.
04:12It also gives elected officials a better idea of whether they say they need to create a
04:18new school, a nursery, new roads, transportation.
04:21So it is essential on a local level, but it also helps on a broader level as well, permitting
04:28the state to say, look at shifts in population in France compared, say, to the rest of Europe.
04:34France is currently the second most populated nation in the European Union after Germany,
04:38but it wasn't always that way, as we're about to see in this old newsreel from just after
04:43World War II.
04:44In 1800, the French population was one-sixth of Europe's.
04:51It's now one-twelfth.
04:52France needs children that play and laugh, ones that tomorrow will be workers and protectors.
04:57We must be careful.
04:59Grandeur is often a question of numbers.
05:03Now, such incitements to have more children do not always go down, or now don't go down
05:08as well as they may have in the years following World War II, when actually there was a baby
05:12boom in France.
05:13Emmanuel Macron's prompting a year ago for a demographic rearmament, un rearmement démographique,
05:21or for people basically to have more children.
05:23It was actually met with quite a lot of backlash because of his choice of words.
05:28Now, in regards to demographics, so launch January is the only month, not only the month
05:33where the census begins, but rather the month where the previous figures are published.
05:37Yeah, Hélène Say earlier this week broke down where France is at in regard to demographics,
05:42and I have the 2024 numbers for you.
05:45The French population is, as of January 1st, 2025, at 68.6 million people.
05:50This is actually 0.25, a quarter of a percent more than it was the previous year, namely
05:55because of 170,000 more people moving to France rather than leaving or dying.
06:01The birth rate, of course, has to do with this as well, but only actually minimally.
06:05France's birth rate was at 1.62 children per woman.
06:09That's a drop of over 2% from the previous year, and the lowest rate since World War,
06:15right after World War I, 1919.
06:18France's births are precariously close to the number of deaths in this every year.
06:23Last year, there were just 17,000 more births.
06:26That is not enough to maintain the generational population, hence the calls to have more babies.
06:32But again, this is a problem that is afflicting many nations across the globe.
06:36It warrants a chronique in itself.
06:38The reasons are complex and puzzling, and it touches developed nations as well as underdeveloped
06:43ones.
06:44As for life expectancy, French women live on average 85.6 years.
06:49That's a stable figure and one of the highest in Europe.
06:52I also have good news for French men.
06:55They have finally hit the bar of 80 years of life expectancy.
07:00And I have one final tidbit of good news for you as well when it comes to demographics,
07:05and that while couples are having fewer babies, love is still in the air.
07:11Last year's census showed that the number of marriages was up by 2%.
07:15This is actually a multi-year trend, but this was a jump that hadn't been seen in 15 years.
07:20So babies may be out, but love and weddings are not.
07:25Maybe babies are around the corner.
07:26Who knows?
07:27Who knows?
07:28Thank you very much for that, Solange Mougin, there with our Entre Nous segment.