French 29-year-olds urged to start familes

The French government is sending a letter to all 29-year-olds in the country, encouraging them to think about when they will have children.

In response to falling birth rates in France, President Emmanuel Macron has approved the implementation of a new 16-measure fertility plan established by the Ministry of Health. The aim is to increase government and public attention towards reproductive health and choices.

'Fertility is a shared responsibility between women and men,' said health minister Stéphanie Rist. She added that the government's role is 'not to dictate whether or not to have children,' but to remind people of their options.

In addition to the letter, scientifically validated information about reproductive and sexual health will be available through a new national reference portal called My Fertility, which aims to educate users on fertility-related risk factors.

The letter will also highlight the availability of state-funded egg-freezing for 29 to 37-year-olds. As demand is projected to increase, the plan includes measures to open 30 additional egg-freezing centres by 2028, and improve regional access.

The plan will also address the surge in demand for donor gametes following the enactment of the bioethics law in 2021, which granted single French women and those in same-sex partnerships access to state-funded IVF (see BioNews 1099). Treatments using donated sperm have increased 8.5-fold compared to the period before the legislation was passed. In response, the Ministry of Health plans to increase the number of gamete donation centres.

The plan also includes funding to continue research into treatments for endometriosis and strengthening care for polycystic ovarian syndrome. Both conditions are often underdiagnosed and can have implications for fertility.

France's birth rate has fallen below the death rate, meaning the population is officially in decline. The fertility rate is the average number of children born per woman across their reproductive lifespan. The 'replacement rate' needed to maintain a population is around 2.1.

'This is something that demographers had known for a long time, but the fact that there were more deaths than births in France last year created a shock effect,' Professor François Gemenne from HEC Paris Business School, told Sky News.

However, France's 2025 fertility rate of 1.56 children per woman, on average, is still one of the highest in Europe. In 2024 figures, the European average is 1.4, and the UK's is 1.41.

Critics have raised the difficulties facing families with young children. Psychologist Marie Estelle Dupont told The Times that maternity leave in France is under four months, and others have raised the cost of housing.

Paul Brunstein-Compard, 29, a stand-up comedian based in Paris, told The Times that his generation had economic and environmental concerns about becoming parents, but might be more likely to have children if they saw the future as 'more respectful, less discriminatory and more joyful'.