People aged 65 and over now count for 19.2% of the population of France. And life expectancy is now 85.4 years for women and 79.3 for men (the gap of nearly six years is wider than the UK, where it is only 4 years - though it is narrowing in France).
The statistics are taken from a comprehensive population census report from INSEE, the official department for statistics. The overall population is now 66.9 millions, the second highest in the EU and has grown by about 265000 in 2016. The growth is largely the result of births outstripping deaths, net migration being 67000. France has 13% of the EU population. But births are slowing down largely due to the reduction of women of childbearing age.
Insee also notes that the "baby boomers" are reaching the age of likely death (cheerful news for us all!!).
As we know, marriage is not as fashionable as it used to be, but in 2016 some 235000 couples married, with about 7000 being same sex marriages. But the civil partnerships continue to increase to around 200000 concluded in 2016.
The problem of an ageing population raises questions of how long people need to work, who will provide the revenue and services to finance pensions and care for ever older populations. Perhaps Angela Merkel's policy of adding a million young workers to Germany's population will help that country to deal with the problem.
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