Colomiers in south-west France is trendy, unfold out – and never very engaging.
Younger {couples} got here right here from the close by metropolis of Toulouse to have youngsters as a result of property costs are far cheaper. It grew quickly and now has a inhabitants of 40,000.
Nevertheless, fertility charges have not too long ago declined throughout France, and Colomiers has seen one of many largest falls – 31% since 2018.
France used to face out from its European neighbours for the excessive variety of youngsters born per girl throughout her child-bearing years.
Its fertility price nonetheless stays above the European common, however it’s falling sharply.
The variety of births in France in 2024 was the bottom since 1919.
In January final 12 months, President Emmanuel Macron known as for a “demographic rearmament” with new reforms making it simpler for folks to have youngsters.
These included growing the monetary assist each dad and mom obtain whereas they give the impression of being after their new child infants, for as much as six months.
However it could take years for the insurance policies to have an effect on France’s demographic decline – particularly as there have been 4 totally different governments in little over a 12 months and the reforms haven’t but come into legislation.
In a midwife’s workplace in Colomiers, Laurence Loiseau is weighing three-week-old Léonie – Caroline and Teddy Rivat’s second baby.
The couple do not know whether or not they may have any extra youngsters, however already they’re properly above the common for the Occitanie area, the place the fertility price stands at 1.53 in contrast with the nationwide 1.62.
Fertility charges in Colomiers have fallen by 31% since 2018, making it one of many largest falls throughout the entire of France [BBC]
Laurence Loiseau has been a midwife right here for 30 years and has observed a change in mindset. Hardly any of her 32-year-old daughter’s buddies have youngsters, she says.
“They’ll attempt later in life however meaning they may have extra problem getting pregnant – and by the point they attain 40 it will likely be very troublesome to have a second baby.”
Ms Loiseau provides she nonetheless sees households with three or 4 youngsters, however that these often come from poorer or immigrant backgrounds.
Elevating youngsters in France is dear.
The final official authorities statistics a decade in the past put the associated fee at about €6,800 (£5,700) a 12 months to lift a baby. Utilizing these figures and together with inflation, French economists say the determine now’s near €9,000 a 12 months.
Margaux Biscaye – additionally a midwife in Colomiers – meets quite a lot of younger ladies who come to see her for contraceptive recommendation.
She says that for an growing variety of younger ladies between the ages of 20 and 30 having youngsters just isn’t a precedence.
Some merely don’t need any, says Ms Biscaye: “Usually due to the world we reside in proper now. It isn’t a really optimistic interval. Possibly they may change their thoughts however perhaps not.”
Paola Godard, who’s 27 and works within the music trade, is adamant she is not going to have youngsters of her personal, although she would possibly take into account adoption.
Though financially she would be capable of elevate youngsters, she doesn’t assume she might present them with a protected future, she says.
She is anxious by the rise of far proper and by the potential impression of local weather change in 20 years’ time.
The Occitanie area is witnessing the second-fastest fall within the fertility price throughout France.
Solely Corsica is greater, as a result of so many younger folks depart the island for job alternatives on the mainland.
Catherine Sourd from the Nationwide Institute of Statistics and Financial Research (Insee) advised the BBC the beginning price in Occitanie fell by 8.5% in 2023, in contrast with 6.5% nationally.
Ms Sourd says the autumn is even steeper amongst ladies aged between 24 and 35, who’re often probably the most fertile.
Ladies are delaying having their first baby in contrast with earlier generations and settling into long-term relationships later in life, she says.
On the similar time, the present financial uncertainty is weighing on younger folks’s minds.
The identical uncertainty in the course of the monetary disaster in 2008 additionally had a big effect on fertility in France and throughout Western Europe, with a pointy downward blip in births again then too, Ms Sourd says.
In Colomiers the variety of major faculty children has fallen by 10% up to now seven years.
Xavier Vuiller works in academic administration on the Victor Hugo secondary faculty. He and his Spanish spouse, Noelia, have only one baby, 12-year-old Paolo – and that will not change.
“My spouse was very eager to pursue a private profession… in order that she would have the identical alternatives as I’d have as a person. So we took the time to have a baby and only one,” Xavier says.
He provides that the falling pupils numbers will probably be felt in his personal faculty in a couple of years’ time because the dwindling variety of major faculty youngsters transfer as much as secondary colleges.
The image is comparable additional into the French countryside too, the place fertility charges was once greater. That is not the case both, based on authorities statistics.
Marion and Farid say 10-year-old Maelle will probably be their solely baby [BBC]
Within the cosy village of Gratens, south of Colomiers, Farid Achezegag, a sculptor, lives along with his companion Marion Savy, a trainer, their 10-year-old daughter Maelle and a really massive ginger cat.
Farid and Marion agreed to have only one baby.
“It is the mannequin I’m used to – and I used to be fairly completely happy as a single baby,” Marion says.
“I really like my work and once I thought of turning into a mom I wished to even have time for me. I’m not egocentric – I wished to supply my baby important time only for her and nonetheless have my girl’s life.”
Farid’s dad and mom had been Algerian immigrants. They’d 4 youngsters, however he doesn’t wish to go down the identical path.
“Like Marion I used to be set on having one baby,” he mentioned. “Your relationship with youngsters in an enormous household just isn’t the identical.”
