Population: 58 804 944 (July 1998 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 19% (male 5 674 417; female 5 411 685)
15-64 years: 65% (male 19 243 919; female 19 182 933)
65 years and over: 16% (male 3 759 565; female 5 532 425) (July 1998 est.)

Population growth rate: 0.31% (1998 est.)

Birth rate: 11.68 births/1 000 population (1998 est.)

Death rate: 9.12 deaths/1 000 population (1998 est.)

Net migration rate: 0.58 migrant(s)/1 000 population (1998 est.)

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.67 male(s)/female (1998 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 5.69 deaths/1 000 live births (1998 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 78.51 years
male: 74.6 years
female: 82.62 years (1998 est.)

Total fertility rate: 1.63 children born/woman (1998 est.)

Nationality:
noun: Frenchman(men) Frenchwoman(women)
adjective: French

Ethnic groups: Celtic and Latin with Teutonic Slavic North African Indochinese Basque minorities

Religions: Roman Catholic 90% Protestant 2% Jewish 1% Muslim (North African workers) 1% unaffiliated 6%

Languages: French 100% rapidly declining regional dialects and languages (Provencal Breton Alsatian Corsican Catalan Basque Flemish)

Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99%
male: 99%
female: 99% (1980 est.)