60 million people in metropolitan France

On 1st January 2004, the population of metropolitan France was estimated to be 59.9 million, plus a further 1.8 million living in the French overseas departments, bringing the total to 61.7 million [1]. The mainland population increased by nearly 266,000 people (+ 0.4%) in 2003. This was slightly down on 2003 due to a slight fall in the surplus of births over deaths (the same level of births but slightly more deaths) combined with a slight fall in net migration (surplus of immigration over emigration) as estimated by Insee.

Gilles Pison