Fewer strollers and more gray hair: The ongoing decline in births, combined with rising life expectancy, means France’s population continues its trend of demographic aging. In 2026, the demographic segment of people aged 65 and over (22.2%) is almost as large as the under-20s segment (22.5%) in France’s total population, the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) finds in its annual demographic report, published Tuesday, January 13. The baby boomer generation, born between 1946 and 1965, has accentuated this demographic aging trend.
The trend will accelerate from 2030 onward, peaking in 2050. By the middle of the 21st century, over-65s will account for more than a quarter (27.5%) of the population. The number of people aged 75 to 84 will have increased by 50% between 2020 and 2030. The number of over-85s will surge from 2030 through 2052, when, according to projections, the country’s population pyramid will stabilize.
Due to disparities between departments, some areas’ populations will age more rapidly than others. In 2050, 42.68% of the southwestern Dordogne department’s residents will be aged 65 and over, compared to 33% in 2025. The northern Paris suburban department of Seine-Saint-Denis is predicted to remain the youngest in mainland France, with just 18.5% of its population being aged 65 and over in 2050, up from 13.49% in 2025.
This major demographic shift, though it has long been foreseeable and visible, has never, unlike the response to climate change, led any successive governments to take specific political decisions, except for a contested 2023 pension reform. In January 2024, President Emmanuel Macron called for “demographic rearmament,” announcing several measures to boost births, though he did not mention any policies to address the impact of demographic aging.
365,000 more places in nursing homes
Yet this trend will have “profound consequences for the economy and public finances, both in terms of spending (pensions, health, dependency, education) and revenue (taxes, contributions),” said the Court of Audit in its December 2, 2025, report, entitled “Demography and Public Finances.”
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