Editing Demographics of France (section)

=== 1800 to 20th century ===
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| image1            = France population pyramid in 1914.svg
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| caption1          = 1914
| image2            = France population pyramid in 1920.svg
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| header            = Population pyramid before and after the First World War
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[[Image:Population2Centuries.jpg|400px|thumbnail|Two centuries of population growth]]
Starting around 1800, the historical evolution of the population in France has been atypical in Europe. Unlike the rest of Europe, there was no strong population growth in France in the 19th and first half of the 20th century. The [[birth rate]] in France diminished much earlier than in the rest of Europe in part because inheritance laws dictated distribution of estates whereas in the UK wealth could be passed to the eldest son or child.{{original research inline|date=March 2018}} The country's large population gave [[Napoleon]] a seemingly limitless supply of men for the [[Grande Armée]], but the birth rate began to fall in the late 18th century;{{r|huss1990}} thus population growth was quite slow in the 19th century, and the nadir was reached in the first half of the 20th century when France, surrounded by the rapidly growing populations of Germany and the United Kingdom, had virtually zero growth. The slow growth of France's population in the 19th century was reflected in the country's very low emigration rate.

The French population only grew by 8.6% between 1871 and 1911, while Germany's grew by 60% and Britain's by 54%.<ref name="jackson2001">{{cite book | title=France: The Dark Years, 1940–1944 | publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] | author=Jackson, Julian | year=2001 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/france00juli/page/31 31–33, 103–104] | isbn=978-0-19-820706-1 | url=https://archive.org/details/france00juli/page/31 }}</ref>

French concerns about the country's slow population growth began after its defeat in the [[Franco-Prussian War]]. For four years in the 1890s, the number of deaths exceeded the number of births. The National Alliance for the Growth of the French Population (ANAPF) was formed in 1896, and the Cognacq-Jay and other prizes were created for the parents of large families. [[Émile Zola]]'s 1899 novel {{ill|Les Quatre Évangiles|fr|Les Quatre Évangiles|lt=Fécondité|italic=yes}} is representative of contemporary concerns about the birthrate. France lost 10% of its active male population in World War I; the 1.3 million French deaths, along with even more births forgone by potential fathers being off at war, caused a drop of 3 million in the French population, and helped make ''Dénatalité'' a national obsession; by 1920 ANAPF had 40,000 members, and in July that year [[Abortion in France|a new law strictly regulated abortion]] and contraception.{{r|huss1990}}{{r|jackson2001}}

ANAPF proposed that parents of large families receive extra votes, and the belief that women's suffrage in other countries caused birth rates to decline helped defeat proposals before World War II to [[Women's suffrage in France|permit women to vote]]. The birth rate declined again after a brief baby boom from 1920 to 1923, and reached an all-time low during peacetime in the late 1930s. During the "hollow years" of the decade, the number of new [[Conscription in France|conscripts]] declined because of the lack of births during World War I. From 1935 deaths exceeded births; the press widely discussed the country's decreasing population. Both left and right supported pro-natalist policies; even the [[French Communist Party]] ended its opposition to anti-birth control and anti-abortion laws in 1936, and its leader, [[Maurice Thorez]], advocated for the "protection of family and childhood".{{r|huss1990}}{{r|jackson2001}}

New laws in November 1938 and July 1939, the {{lang|fr|code de la famille}}, provided enough financial incentives for large families to double the income of a family with six children. The [[Vichy government]] approved of the laws and implemented them as part of its ''[[Travail, famille, patrie]]'' national motto, as did the postwar [[Provisional Government of the French Republic]].{{r|jackson2001}}<ref name=huss1990>{{cite journal|jstor=260720|title=Pronatalism in the Inter-War Period in France|first=Marie-Monique|last=Huss|date=1 September 1990|journal=Journal of Contemporary History|volume=25|issue=1|pages=39–68|doi=10.1177/002200949002500102|s2cid=162316833}}</ref><ref>Colin L. Dyer, ''Population and Society in 20th Century France'' (1978)</ref> Also, France encouraged immigration, chiefly from other European countries such as Italy, Poland, and Spain. (In fact, with its low birth rate, stagnating or declining native-born population, and role as a destination for migrants from other parts of Europe, France's situation before World War II was not unlike [[Demographics of Germany|that of Germany]] today.)