The French people as they are
Currently, France has a population of 58 million inhabitants. In 1995, 728,210 births and 531,430 deaths were recorded. That is a birth rate of 12.5 per 1,000 and a death rate of 9.1 per 1,000.
Life expectancy is 81.9 years for women and 73.8 years for men. As a result of the low birth rate and the extension of life expectancy, France's population is aging.
The 20 year olds to 59 year olds, who are considered the working population, remain the majority (54 percent) but the number of below 20 year olds is falling (26 percent), while that of the over 60 year olds is on the increase (20 percent).
At birth, 60 percent of French people receive a Catholic baptism. If they marry, it is by the mayor. Every year, more than 250,000 weddings are celebrated, 50 percent of which are in the church, while about 100,000 divorces are declared by judges. The family provides an affective refuge, which is emphasized in all surveys.
Partly owing to unemployment, 55 percent of 20 year olds to 24 year olds and 20 percent of 25 year olds to 29 year olds live with their parents. The number of single-parent families (almost one million) keeps increasing (40 percent more in less than 10 years), and there are now six million people living alone.
The main causes of death are circulatory diseases (33 percent), cancer (27 percent), and violent death (9 percent). In the latter case, suicides cause more deaths (2.2 percent) than road accidents (1.8 percent). Suicide is the main cause of death among 25 year olds to 34 year olds and the second after road accidents among 15 year olds to 24 year olds. More people aged over 55 now put an end to their lives than ever before.
The French increasingly use their private cars, with 82 percent of everyday trips of less than 80 kilometers now made by car, compared with 74 percent in 1982, to the detriment of two- wheeled vehicles, which are now used for 6 percent of trips, compared with 13 percent previously.
"The hegemony of the car risks asphyxiating the outskirts of the towns after having choked up the town centers," the newspaper Le Monde write with concern. The French are preoccupied with the quality of the air but they wait for their neighbors to take the first step. The number of deaths caused by asthma increased by 30 percent between 1980 and 1990.
"Even if genetic factors have to be considered, the factors of air environment play a predominant part in this development," the French National Statistics and Economic Studies Institute (INSEE) notes.
Three-quarters of French people have Catholic funerals. Burial is the most widely practiced method but cremation is gaining favor. Every year, for All Saints' Day, November 1, which is confused with the day of the dead, November 2, graves are covered in a dazzling display of chrysanthemums. This floral ritual accounts for a quarter of annual spending at flower shops.
More than one-fifth (21.3 percent) of their expenditure is devoted to housing, heating and lighting. Since 1960, this expenditure has more than doubled. At the same time, the amount spent on food has fallen from 33.3 percent to 18.3 percent and on clothes from 11 percent to 5.7 percent.
Spending on transport and communication has increased from 11.6 percent to 16.4 percent, health, from 5 percent to 10.2 percent, and, more slightly, leisure, from 6 percent to 7.4 percent. Of the 21 million households surveyed in 1990, 54 percent owned their homes, 40 percent rented and 6 percent had free accommodation.
More than half of food purchases are made in supermarkets and 30 times more frozen food is bought today than in 1970. The ready-cooked meals sector is expanding with strong preferences for exotic or regional recipes. Although the French drink less milk, fresh dairy products (such as yogurt, cream caramels) are consumed more. Even before "mad cow" disease, the amount of meat eaten had fallen and the French eat less bread (144 grams) daily.
According to Robert Rochefort, the Center of Research for the Study and Observation of Living Conditions' president, the two products which have become symbols of the 1990s are so-called biological yogurt, the result of four years of laboratory studies and has been created as a health food, and olive oil, "of which there is a boom in consumption and which is redolent of the land". But the care taken to health food and natural local produce goes together with irresistible temptations for cakes, chocolate, ice cream and other sweetmeats.
Of the 22 million working people in active employment, office workers come top in numbers (more than 6 million). Since 1993, they have outnumbered factory workers (5.7 million). There has also been a sharp increase in managers, technicians and supervisors.
There are now only 850,000 farmers. With more than 3 million unemployed, which is 11.8 percent of the working population, France is slightly above the European average of 11.4 percent and a considerable number of working people are in a situation of "economic and social fragility". In 1994, 940,000 people benefited from the minimum integration allocation of about 2,500 francs a month (US$500).