France, July 19 -- In the last 20 years, the desire to have children has fallen sharply in France, according to a study published by theFrenchInstitutefor Demographic Studies last week - and the country's birth rate is at its lowest since the end of the Second World War.

"People now prefer smaller families, and fertility will probably continue to fall," Milan Bouchet-Valat, a sociologist and co-author of the study, told French news agency AFP.

Using data from two major national surveys carried out in 2005 and 2024, the study reveals a fundamental trend: younger generations want fewer children than their elders.

Among women under 30, the average number of children desired has fallen from 2.5 to 1.9 in 20 years.

Global fertility rate to...