Clé France

Population structure

The ageing of the population is common to western Europe, but because of low birth rates it has been observable in France since the beginning of the 19th century. By the end of the 20th century, one-fifth of French citizens were at least 60 years old. The tendency for the proportion of the elderly population to increase also reflects medical advances, which have produced a longer expectation of life. The age structure of the population is of considerable social and economic importance. The steady increase in the proportion of the aged puts an increasing strain on the working population to provide pensions, medical and social services, and retirement housing. The increase in births between 1944 and the mid-1970s, however, brought its own problems, notably the need to rush through a school-building program, followed by the creation of new universities. But this demographically young population also stimulated the economy by creating a greater demand for consumer goods and housing.

 Another important aspect of population structure is the proportion of men to women, in society as a whole and in the various age groups. As in most western European countries, women outnumber men in French society and particularly in the older age groups, which is the result of two factors: the wars, which caused the death of a large number of men, and the natural inequality of life expectancy for men and women. A French woman at birth has one of the highest life expectancies in the world (83 years), while a man's is much lower (75 years), although still relatively high when compared with the world in general. The ratio of men to women in employment is another measure of population structure, and in the late 20th century women steadily increased their share of the job market.

 Population distribution

Particularly low population densities are characteristic of the mountain regions, such as the Massif Central, the southern Alps, the Pyrenees, and Corsica, but are also reflected in some lowland rural areas, such as the eastern and southern Paris Basin and large parts of Aquitaine. The four least-populated French régions—Corsica, Limousin, Franche-Comté, and Auvergne—have one-sixteenth of the national population in about one-eighth of the area. By contrast, the four most populated French régions—Île-de-France (Paris region), Rhône-Alpes, Provence–Alpes–Côte d'Azur, and Nord–Pas-de-Calais—have more than two-fifths of the French population in less than one-fifth of the area. Other high-density areas are the industrial cities of Lorraine; isolated large cities, such as Toulouse; and certain small-farm areas, such as coastal Brittany, Flanders, Alsace, and the Limagne basin of Auvergne.

 Until about the mid-19th century, rural and urban populations both increased; thereafter there was a marked depopulation of the more remote, mostly mountainous, rural areas and a swing to urban growth. In the space of a century, from the 1860s to the 1960s, rural population decreased by more than one-third, though since that time it has remained constant, numbering 13.6 million in both 1962 and 1999. There were still as many rural as urban inhabitants even up to the period between the two World Wars, but by the 1980s three-fourths of the population was urban, which it currently remains. Postwar rural depopulation was associated with the exodus of labour following the modernization of French agriculture. At the time, rural areas were left with an aging population and low birth rates as the young departed to the cities, especially to the growing industrial régions of Nord–Pas-de-Calais, Lorraine, and Île-de-France.

 The massive postwar movement from rural areas to the cities was supplemented by immigration, which also focused on urban areas where employment was available. Because immigrants to the cities tended to be young adults of childbearing age, city dwellers multiplied. Urban population growth in the 30 years after World War II was estimated to be at least 16 million persons. Subsequent urban growth was due in part to expanding city limits and was characterized by urban sprawl, accelerated redistribution from city centres to suburban outskirts, though some rebalancing toward the centre has occurred in recent years.

 From about 1975, migratory flows were greatly modified, the most immediate cause being economic. The older industrial régions, such as Nord–Pas-de-Calais and Lorraine, were in decline and had become regions of out-migration. The most dramatic reversal was that of the deindustrialized Île-de-France région; although still the greatest population concentration of France, it had a negative migration balance after 1975. Growth subsequently switched to the south, to the coastlands of Languedoc and of Provence–Alpes–Côte d'Azur; to the west, in the Atlantic régions of Poitou-Charentes and Pays de la Loire; and to the southwest, in the Midi-Pyrénées and Aquitaine régions. These shifts reflect a combination of economic decentralization, retirement migration, sunbelt industrialization, changing residential preferences, and expanding tourism. Population increase has also been strong on the southern and western fringes of the Paris Basin, favoured for industrial decentralization from the Île-de-France région.

 Since World War II, urban growth in France has been accompanied by marked suburbanization. This trend was initiated much earlier in Paris, a densely built-up city that leveled off at a maximum population of about 2.8 million in the period 1911–54 and declined thereafter. Proportionately the decline set in much earlier: in 1876 the city of Paris had 60 percent of the population of what was to become the Île-de-France région; in 1921, 51 percent; in 1954, 39 percent; and in 1999, 19 percent. The century after 1850 witnessed the rise of the industrialized inner suburbs (the petite couronne) outside the walls of the city. There maximum population was reached in the 1970s, followed by a decline associated with a marked degree of deindustrialization. Since the 1980s, population growth has been concentrated in the outer Paris suburbs ( grande couronne), which by 1999 accounted for 44 percent of the total population of the Île-de-France région, compared with 37 percent in the declining inner suburbs.

 In the first half of the 20th century, suburban growth, where it did occur, was not the result of middle-class suburbanization, as it was in the United States and the United Kingdom. It was the working class and the lower middle classes that moved out, while higher-income groups endeavoured to maintain a foothold in central Paris. In the postwar period, however, suburbanization took increasingly middle-class forms, with the building up of satellite low-density subdivisions known as “new villages.” Similar postwar suburbanization occurred in cities such as Marseille, Lyon, Lille, and Bordeaux.

 Increasingly, the most rapid population growth is relegated to small towns and nominally rural communes on the expanding fringes of the city regions. This dispersal of population is associated with an increasing length of daily commuter movements, with all their human disadvantages, as well as other problems of urban sprawl. Vacation travel, very popular among the French, involves the movement of crowds of people during the peak seasons, particularly during school vacations and in August, when many people take their paid holiday and leave the city. Transport facilities and popular vacation spots become saturated, especially the coastal areas and mountains.

Population: total: 64,057,790
note:60,876,136 in metropolitan France (July 2008 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 18.6% (male 6,091,571/female 5,803,127)
15-64 years: 65.2% (male 20,884,919/female 20,849,988)
65 years and over: 16.2% (male 4,335,996/female 6,092,189) (2008 est.)

Median age:  
total: 39.2 years
male: 37.7 years
female: 40.7 years (2008 est.)

Population growth rate: 0.574% (2008 est.)

Birth rate: 12.73 births/1,000 population (2008 est.)

Death rate: 8.48 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.)

Net migration rate: 1.48 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2008 est.)

Sex ratio: at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.71 male(s)/female
total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2008 est.)

Infant mortality rate:  
total: 3.36 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 3.69 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 3.02 deaths/1,000 live births (2008 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:  
total population: 80.87 years
male: 77.68 years
female: 84.23 years (2008 est.)

Total fertility rate: 1.98 children born/woman (2008 est.)

Blog submitted by: David at Cle France.

Client's Question: My French is good ‘A’ level standard, but now having retired to France I have some more time on my hands, I’d like to study further and get a degree. Are there any options other than Open University?  

Having found myself in exactly your position a few years ago, I can highly recommend the University of London Royal Holloway College distance learning BA degree. You can complete the degree in a three-year period if you can commit to full-time study, or spread your studies over as long as eight years.To be eligible for the course you need to have a level of French that is at least equivalent to a grade C at A Level. The overall requirements are either two or three A Level passes plus a respective number of AS Level passes or GCSEs with grade C or above.

Foreign students may apply but may be asked to demonstrate their written and spoken ability in English as well. Overseas students may have to travel to London for the oral examination, but there are venues in various countries for written examinations.

Another point to bear in mind is that you will have to refer to a certain number of library books (on top of books that you will have to buy), so you need to live near enough to a good library where you will be able to find such books.

This degree course will develop your reading, writing and speaking skills in French. You will study the origins of the French language, as well as French literature and the social, political and economic institutions of France. In general terms, you will learn to use your abilities to refine information and express your own conclusions.

There are three levels of study, each broken down into a number of full units and half units. You have to complete 12 units in all, at least three of which must be from Level 3, and all core units must be included. You must pass examinations in a minimum of nine units. In any one year, you can sit examinations in as little as one half unit and a maximum of four full units (or equivalent in half units). You have to apply separately to sit for examinations, but you will receive instructions about this from the university. On your successful completion, you will be awarded a classified honours degree.

After registering you will initially receive a student handbook, a subject guide, past examination papers and Examiners' reports, and university regulations. You will also have immediate access to the University of London Online Library, so it is obviously an advantage to apply early.

Updated materials continue to be provided throughout the duration of your study. Once registered, you will have access to the student-to-student network on the website, where you can exchange ideas. While in London, you are allowed to use the University's Senate House Library, although there is an extra charge for this. Another additional cost is the essay marking service.

Level 1 has a core translation half unit, as well as a core progression unit in written French. Additionally, there are five half units: textual analysis; introduction to narrative; linguistics of French 1; perspectives on modern France; and reading the visual.

Level 2 has full core units on translation and written French. At this level the half units are on shaping fictions; writing romance and desire; linguistics of French 2; culture and ideology; and staging the text.

Level 3 has three core half units of practical language work in written French, spoken French, and prose and translation. Three half units can be chosen from French medieval literature; linguistics of French 3; literature of challenge: the French philosophers; love and society in the modern French novel; and modern French dramatists. There is also a full unit Special Subject where the choice is from Rousseau, Baudelaire, Zola, Proust or the Medieval Occitan.

More details on all the units can be found in the prospectus, which can be downloaded online as well as applied for by post. In addition to the BA degree in French, you can combine French with either Italian or German. Visit University of London website for information on these degrees.

A degree awarded by the External Programme of the University of London has a standing equal to that of a degree awarded to a resident student at the university. It is an excellent way of gaining a prestigious qualification for anyone who wishes to study without giving up their career, or for anyone residing overseas. The syllabus covers a wonderfully diverse range of topics and includes study of medieval French texts as well as modern ones. It would be a huge commitment, but one where there is flexibility to study when and where it suits you as an individual, and to decide how much you wish to take on in any particular year.

Blog submitted by: Sharon at Cle France.

Planned taxation of holiday homes in France has been dropped.

You may be aware of the proposed new tax on holiday homes in France? it has recently been headlining the french property press, well the good news is that this has been dropped by the French government.

It was always seemed to be a last minute idea in order to help make the numbers work on the back of a reduction in the wealth tax. The decision to drop the idea was taken late last week at a meeting between the Minister of Budget, François Baroin and the President Nicolas Sarkozy. The meeting was also attended by senators representing French nationals living abroad, who would have had to have paid the new tax in the future.

There are a number of expert commentators who considered that the new tax did not comply with EU regulations. There also appears to have been pressure from the UK, in the shape of David Lidington, the Minister of Europe, he protested to senior French politicians about the proposed tax.

Part of the statement from the Elysee Palace read, ‘y avait une très forte incompréhension des Français établis à l'étranger.’

According to the French government, more than 360,000 property owners would have been liable for the tax, of which around half would have been UK citizens.

So the reason for abandoning the tax? well this could be highly politically motivated, the government had not thought through the implications of this proposal for the thousands of supporters (and voters) living abroad, and the reasons behind them being exiled. The impact was likely to have been relatively mild for most people but the worry of a pending tax made for a lot of uncertainty. The government estimated total revenues from the tax at around 170 million a year.

As the new tax will not now go ahead the government will need to find a replacement source of funding the deficit. The belief is that it is likely to be an increase in capital gains tax on building land. 

Blog submitted by: Sharon at Cle France.

We at Cle France Ltd, believe that our clients and 3rd party service users have a right to be heard, understood and respected by all, this also includes all our agents, partners and business associates.

Occasionally, certain actions by people, clients, customers using our services can make it very difficult for us to deal with their enquiry or concern, luckily 99.9% of client contact is positive and respectful to our staff but in a small number of cases the actions of some individuals become unacceptable because they involve abuse of our staff, our company policies or our processes. When this happens we have to take appropriate steps. We have to consider whether the action, whatever it may be, impacts on our ability to do our work and to provide a service to others.

We understand that people may act out of character in times of frustration, trouble or distress, we do not view an action as unacceptable, just because a person is forceful or determined. However, we do consider shouting either over the phone or in emails (the use of CAPITALS and several !!!!! for example) or any other actions that result in unreasonable demands on our staff to be unacceptable.

It is these actions that we aim to manage under this policy.

There is a range of actions we consider to be unacceptable. These are:

1. Aggressive or abusive behaviour.

2. Unreasonable demands.

3. Unreasonable levels of contact.

Aggressive or abusive behaviour.

Buying a house in France, or indeed selling a house in France should not be a stressful ordeal, especially with Cle France Ltd on your side, but we understand that people can become angry when they feel that matters about which they feel strongly are not being dealt with or responded to as they wish. If that anger escalates into aggression towards our staff, we consider that unacceptable.

Any such aggression or abuse directed towards our staff will not be tolerated.

Aggressive or abusive behaviour includes language (whether verbal or written) that may cause staff to feel afraid, threatened or abused and may include threats, personal verbal abuse, derogatory remarks and rudeness. This is not solely restricted to simple 'bad language' although, of course, this is never tolerated.

We also consider inflammatory statements, remarks of a racial or discriminatory nature and unsubstantiated allegations, to be abusive behaviour.

Unreasonable demands.

A demand becomes unacceptable when it starts to (or when complying with the demand would) impact excessively on the work of our staff. Or when dealing with the matter takes up an excessive amount of staff time and in so doing, disadvantages other customers or service users.

For example:

Repeatedly demanding responses within an unreasonable timescale.

Demanding responses from several members of staff on the same subject.

Insisting on seeing or speaking to a particular member of staff or agent before your original contact has dealt with your enquiry.

Repeatedly changing the substance of an enquiry or complaint or raising unrelated concerns.

Repeatedly demanding the address of a property for sale after being made aware of our policy of 'only accompanied viewings'.

Repeatedly posing a question time and again, when a response has already been given, because the individual may not like the answer they have received.

Unreasonable levels of contact.

Sometimes the volume and duration of contact made to our staff by an individual causes problems.

This can occur over a short period, for example, when a large number of calls or emails are received from the same person in one day. When we are dealing with a complaint or enquiry, this may occur when a person repeatedly makes long telephone calls to us or inundates us with emails or copies of information that have been already sent or that are irrelevant to the substance of the complaint or enquiry.

We consider that the level of contact has become unacceptable when the amount of time spent talking to an individual on the telephone, or responding to, reviewing and filing emails or written correspondence, impacts on our ability to deal with the matter, or on our responsibility for carrying out tasks relating to other clients.

How we manage aggressive or abusive behaviour -

The threat or use of physical violence, verbal abuse or harassment towards our staff is likely to result in a termination of all direct contact with the client or service user. Such incidents may be reported to the police. This will always be the case if physical violence is used or threatened.

Where correspondence (either letter, fax or email, electronic) that is abusive to staff or contains allegations that lack substantive evidence is received, we will inform the sender that we consider their language offensive, unnecessary and unhelpful and ask them to stop using such language. We will ask that the sender edit their correspondence to remove any offensive text and resend it, otherwise it will not be responded to.

Staff will end telephone calls if they consider the caller aggressive, abusive or offensive. Our staff have the right to make this decision, to tell the caller that their behaviour is unacceptable and to end the call if the behaviour then persists. Typical behaviour that will not be tolerated is shouting, bad language, unreasonable demands, name calling and anything else deemed unacceptable.

In extreme situations, we will tell the person in writing that we will not permit any personal contact from them. This means that we will limit contact with them to either written communication or through a third party.

With abusive or inappropriate email contact we will block the sender from sending emails to our email servers.

How we deal with other categories of unreasonable behaviour -

Where a member of the public repeatedly phones, visits our offices, raises the same issue repeatedly, or sends us large numbers of documents about which the relevance is not clear, we may decide to:

Limit contact to telephone calls from the person at set times on set days.

Restrict contact to a nominated member of staff who will deal with future calls or correspondence.

Restrict contact to written correspondence only.

Refuse to deal with further correspondence and return any documents or, in extreme cases;

Advise the person that further irrelevant documentation will be destroyed.

Take any other action that we consider appropriate to the circumstances.

Where we consider continued correspondence on a wide range of issues to be excessive, we may tell the person that only a certain number of issues will be considered in a given period and ask them to limit or focus their requests accordingly.

Where someone repeatedly demands a response on an issue on which they have already been a given a clear answer by Cle France Ltd, we may refuse to respond to further enquiries from the person.

We will always tell the person in writing what action we are taking and why. 

The process we follow to make decisions about unreasonable behaviour -

Any member of staff who directly experiences aggressive or abusive behaviour from a member of the public, has the authority to deal immediately with that behaviour in a manner they consider appropriate to the situation and which is in line with this policy. 

With the exception of such immediate decisions taken at the time of an incident, decisions to restrict contact with Cle France Ltd are only taken after careful consideration of the circumstances by a senior member of staff. Wherever possible, we will give the individual the opportunity to change their behaviour before such a decision is taken.

How we let people know we have made this decision -

When a member of staff makes an immediate decision in response to aggressive or abusive behaviour, the individual concerned will be advised at the time of the incident.

When a decision has been made by senior management, the individual will always be told in writing why a decision has been made to restrict future contact, the restricted contact arrangements and the length of time that these restrictions will be in place. They will also be told the process for appealing the decision. This ensures that the individual concerned has a full record of the decision and the reasons behind it. 

How we record and review a decision to restrict contact -

We record all incidents of unacceptable actions which have resulted in contact being restricted. 

Where it is decided to restrict contact, an entry noting this is made by Cle France Ltd in the relevant file and on appropriate computer records.

A decision to restrict contact as described above, may be reconsidered if the complainant or enquirer demonstrates a more acceptable approach. 

Cle France Ltd will review the status of all restricted contact arrangements on a regular basis and correspond with the Service(s) concerned with regard to these reviews.

© Cle France Ltd 2009