Is it true that infant mortality has risen recently in France?

Yes. After falling continuously over the twentieth century, infant mortality is now very low, but stagnating.  It even rose slightly between 2014 and 2017 in France, while it is tending to fall in almost all EU27 countries. At 3.9 deaths for 1,000 live births (3.7 in metropolitan France in 2022, the figure for France is above the EU average. Moreover, 47% of all infant deaths occur in the first week after birth.

Because French civil registry data do not provide medical information, we have only hypotheses to explain the increase. These include women giving birth at older ages, an increase in the number of multiple pregnancies, expectant mothers in precarious socio-economic situations, and less effective functioning of the maternal care system. 

Update:August 2023