Population and society

Population
Standart of living
Holidays
Trade unions
Social welfare
Health

Population

Demographic (2007)

  Births: 817 000
The fertility rate is 1.98 children per woman. Birth rate: 12.7‰.

  Deaths: 527,000
Mortality rate: 8.4‰

  Marriages: 266,500. Since the start of the 1990s, the number of married couples has fallen while the number of unmarried couples has risen from 1.5 million in 1990 to 2.4 million - one couple in six today.

  Divorces: 152, 020.

Household structure by family type

31,5 % Couples with at least one child   12,5 % of men Single + 18,5 % of women Single Singles   24,8 % Couples without children   7,4 % Lone-parent households   5,3 % Other non- family households

Breakdown by age

24,7 % under 20   54,3 % 20 to 59   21,3 % 60 and over, 8,4 % of whom are over 74 with more than 17 000 centenarians

  www.insee.fr

Religions

The French Republic is a secular state where all religious faiths and denominations are found.

Education

In 2007, education spending amounted to €77 billion, 28% of the State budget. In 2005, French education spending came to €117.9 billion, representing 6.9% of GDP and the highest average of the OECD countries.

  Nursery, primary and secondary schools:

• 12, 342, 900 pupils
  

• 884, 000 teachers.
  

• 67, 581 nursery, primary schools and secondary schools.
  

Pupil/teacher ratio: 13.9 pupils to 1 teacher.
Baccalauréat pass rate (2007): 83.3%.

  Higher education:

• 2, 275, 000 students
  

• 89, 300 teaching staff
  

• 92 universities
  

• 3,600 higher education establishments.
  

Student/teacher ratio: 25.4 students to 1 teacher.

  www.education.gouv.fr

Labour force

France has a total labour force of some 27.6 million people. Within this category, 25.1 million are employed and 2.5 million, 9.8% of the total labour force, are jobseekers (January 2004). The labour force participation rate is:

  74.5% for men and
  63.8% for women.

Socio-economic groups

;   29,1 % Non-manual employees : 8, 031, 600   23,9 % Manual employees : 6, 596, 400   23,2 % Intermediate professions : 6,403,200   14,7 % Executives and intellectual professionals : 4, 057, 200   6 % Skilled tradesmen, shopkeepers, and entrepreneurs: 1,656,000   2,7 % Farmers : 1,100,000

  www.insee.fr

Standart of living

Net average annual earnings: €21,480 Gross average household savings: 15.3% of disposable income.

Consumption
(% of household spending)

24.7 % Housing, electricity, heating   20 % Food, drink and tobacco   17,7 % Transport and communications   9,3 % Leisure and culture   5.8 % Household goods and home upkeep   4,9 % Clothing   3,5 % Health   17,4 % Other goods and services

Earned income

On 1 July 2007, the guaranteed monthly minimum wage (SMIC - salaire minimum interprofessionnel de croissance) was €1 280,07 gross for a working week of 35 hours at an hourly rate of €8.44.

Mean fiscal annual salary

  Professionals: €82 100
  Executives, management staff: €45 327
  Technical and supervisory personnel: €23 139
  Farmers, farm workers: €20 00
  Other intermediate professions: €21 502
  Skilled workers: €16 900
  Clerical, white collar workers: €16 079

Holidays

Statutory paid holiday entitlement: five weeks a year.
65% of people take a holiday away from home.

Trade unions

Approximately 1,38 million people in France - 5% of the working population - are union members. This is the lowest percentage in the European Union.

The main centralised trade unions are:

  the CGT (Confédération Générale du Travail)
  the CFDT (Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail)
  FO (Force Ouvrière)
  the CFTC (Confédération Française des Travailleurs Chrétiens)
  the FSU (Fédération Syndicale Unitaire).

Social welfare

The French Social Security system was introduced in 1945. Benefits are financed on a "pay as you go" basis.

65.5% of total social security spending (29.6% of GDP) comes from employers and employees’ contributions and 17.4% from taxes, including earmarked taxes such as the CSG (Contribution sociale généralisée - social security contribution levied on virtually all sources of income) or the CRDS (Contribution pour le remboursement de la dette sociale - contribution to the repayment of the social debt) which apply to all income other than that deriving from work. This is virtually the sole source of funding for the Social Security system. Public financing accounts for 13.5% of total resources.

Benefits break down as follows: pensions (44%), health (35.2%), family allowances (9%) and employment aid (unemployment benefit, vocational training and social integration) (7.4%).

However, the growing number of pensioners compared to the labour force, combined with medical advances and longer life expectancy, has led to a deficit in the French Social Security system and in 2003 to reform of the pension contribution system.

www.travail.gouv.fr

Health

Health is a major concern of the French: in 2005, they spent €190,5 billion on medical care and goods.

77.15% of this was covered by the social security system, with an increasing proportion being met by households and insurance companies. A major programme of reform was instituted in 2004 to balance the accounts of the health insurance branch of the Social Security system.

www.sante.gouv.fr

Updated on July 2007