All 29-year-old French citizens are to be encouraged by their government to have babies while they still can.
Health officials say the aim is to avoid these men and women facing fertility problems later on and thinking “if only I had known”.
The strategy is one part of a 16-point-plan to boost the fertility rate in France, one of many western countries, including the UK where figures are tumbling.
The trend is creating anxiety about how governments will able to fund pensions and healthcare for ageing populations, when there are fewer younger working people paying taxes.
But globally, policies to boost fertility rates have produced limited results, and critics of the French scheme suggested that better housing and maternity provision could be more effective solutions.
France’s fertility rate of 1.56 children per woman is far below the 2.1 needed to maintain a stable population.
But it is higher than the infamously low rates in China, Japan and South Korea; and the UK – where the latest available figures show that it had dropped to a record low of 1.41 in England and Wales by 2024 .
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Professor François Gemenne, who specialises in sustainability and migration at HEC Paris Business School, told Sky News: “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.”
France’s “demographic worry” is exacerbated by the design of its pensions system and its “obsession with immigration and the fear of being ‘replaced'” he added.
Read more: 2026 could bring ‘tipping point’ for UK birth rate
The French government’s attempt to address falling birth rates will see it send out “targeted, balanced, and scientifically sound information” to young people, including issues including on sexual health and contraception.
The material “will also reiterate that fertility is a shared responsibility between women and men”, the country’s health ministry said.
As a part of its plan, it is also trying to boost the number of egg-freezing centres from 40 to 70 and make the country a leader in fertility research.
Its health system already provides free egg-freezing for 29-37 year olds, a service that costs about £5,000 per round in the UK.
The plan also includes a new national communication campaign, a “My Fertility” website advising on the impacts of smoking, weight and lifestyle and school lessons for children about reproductive health.
France’s health ministry has acknowledged its maternal and infant mortality rates are higher than neighbouring countries and is also beginning a review of perinatal care to combat the “concerning” situation.
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Channa Jayasena, professor in reproductive endocrinology at Imperial College London, told Sky News: “On the female side, societal changes leading to older age of motherhood are certainly important.”
He said obesity was also a problem as it increased women’s risk of polycystic ovary syndrome and endometriosis, and was also the main risk factor for men.
Allan Pacey, professor of andrology at Manchester University, said for most people globally, deciding to have children was “down to [non-medical] factors such as better access to education, career opportunities, taxation, housing, mortgages, finance, etc”. “Medicine can’t help with those things,” he said.
