INSEE has rightly drawn attention to the decrease in the number of births in France during the year 2017, a phenomenon that has been repeating year after year for 7 years, with an acceleration over the last 3 years.
Indeed, the birth figures announced for January 2018 are down by 1.2% compared to the same month in 2017, and more strikingly, the drop is significant for February: 52,700 births instead of 55,000, which means 4.2% less.
Therefore, the concern rightly caused by INSEE’s documents concerning birth rates in 2017 should not be a flash in the pan: France continues to slide down the wrong path.
No matter how the issue is approached, there is no reason to rejoice about it, quite the contrary. Let us once again remind ourselves of three fundamental truths:
From a philosophical point of view, one could say “there is no wealth but people,” but more prosaically… the future of our pay-as-you-go pension system primarily depends on birth rates.
