The fertility rate of a country is the average number of children that women from that country would have throughout their reproductive years. In France in 1800, the average woman of childbearing age would have 4.4 children over the course of their lifetime. The beginning of the nineteenth century was a tumultuous time in France's history, involving France's revolutionary period, as well as the Napoleonic Empire. In the first decade of the 1800s, the fertility rate dropped by 0.4, before dropping more slowly, by another 0.5 between 1810 and 1850. The fertility growth rate fluctuated slightly in the late 1800s, before dropping drastically in the early twentieth century, falling from an average of 3 children per woman to less than 1.7 in 1920. France's fertility rate reached this point as a result of the First World War, and the influenza epidemic (known as the Spanish Flu) that followed. The interwar period saw a slight increase in fertility rate, before it fell again in the Second World War. Similarly to other major European countries after the war, France experienced a baby boom in the two decades following the war, before dropping again into the 1980s. The fertility rate reached it's lowest point in the post-war period, falling to 1.7 in 1995, before increasing in more recent years.

In 2023, the total fertility rate in children per woman in France amounted to 1.66. Between 1960 and 2023, the figure dropped by 1.19, though the decline followed an uneven course rather than a steady trajectory.

France FR: Total Fertility Rate: Children per Woman data was reported at 1.790 Person in 2021. This stayed constant from the previous number of 1.790 Person for 2020. France FR: Total Fertility Rate: Children per Woman data is updated yearly, averaging 1.865 Person from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2021, with 32 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 2.020 Person in 2010 and a record low of 1.660 Person in 1994. France FR: Total Fertility Rate: Children per Woman data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The data is categorized under Global Database’s France – Table FR.OECD.GGI: Social: Demography: OECD Member: Annual.

Graph and download economic data for Fertility Rate, Total for France (SPDYNTFRTINFRA) from 1960 to 2023 about fertility, France, and rate.

In 2024, Monaco was the European country estimated to have the highest fertility rate. The country had a fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman. Other small countries such as Gibraltar or Montenegro also came towards the top of the list for 2024, while the large country with the highest fertility rate was France, with 1.64 children per woman. On the other hand, Ukraine had the lowest fertility rate, averaging around one child per woman.

French Polynesia Total Fertility Rate: Children per Woman data was reported at 1.500 Person in 2023. This records a decrease from the previous number of 1.510 Person for 2022. French Polynesia Total Fertility Rate: Children per Woman data is updated yearly, averaging 2.185 Person from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2023, with 34 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 3.430 Person in 1990 and a record low of 1.500 Person in 2023. French Polynesia Total Fertility Rate: Children per Woman data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The data is categorized under Global Database’s French Polynesia – Table PF.OECD.GGI: Social: Demography: Non OECD Member: Annual.

The fertility rate of a country is the average number of children that women from that country will have throughout their reproductive years. Between 1800 and 1830, Belgium's fertility rate dropped from 4.9 to 4.7 children per woman, before increasing to five children per woman in the decade following Belgium's independence in 1831, and then dropping again to 4.3 in 1855. After rising to 4.9 in 1875, the fertility rate then dropped in a very consistent gradient, reaching just below two in 1945. In contrast to the fertility rates of the neighboring France and Netherlands, this data shows that Belgium did not experience an increase after the First World War, despite being heavily involved. Belgium did however experience a baby boom following the Second World War, where the fertility rate increased to 2.7 in the late 1960s, before dropping to 1.6 in 1990, and it has remained between this number and 1.8 over the last thirty years.

Between 1939 and 1950, the Soviet Union's fertility rate underwent the most drastic change of all the major Allied Powers; falling from 4.9 births per woman in 1939 to just 1.7 births in 1943. In Russia alone, this decline was even greater, falling from 4.9 to 1.3 births in the same time period. After the war's conclusion in 1945, there was an observable increase in fertility in all the given countries, and this marked beginning of the global baby boom of the mid-twentieth century.