Long Europes baby-making champions, the French are increasingly aiming to have smaller families or no children at all, a trend driven by changing social norms, economic constraints and the concerns and aspirations of a younger generation.

From her teenage years, Bettina Zourli knew she would be the cool auntie but not a mother herself. Its a choice she recalls having to justify time and time again.

People told me that I was bound to change my mind, that it was in the female nature to wantchildren, says the 31-year-old feminist writer and activist, whose Instagram account@jeneveuxpasdenfant("I dont want children") has more than 65,000 followers.

Zourli's views on the matter are increasingly common in a country that used to stand out from its European neighbours for its high birth rate, but has recentlyfallen in line.

Last year, 12.2 percent of French people said they didnt want to have children, more than twice the number from 2005, according to astudyreleased on Wednesday by nationaldemographyinstitute INED.

The figure is even higher in the 18-29 age group, roughly equivalent to Gen Z, with 15% percent of men and 13.3 percent of women saying they do not want to be parents.

The shifting numbers are the latest indicator of changing attitudes to parenthood and the steady erosion of Frances so-called demographic exception.

Changing social norms

Zourli says its often hard to pinpoint a particular reason for not wanting children.

Its just the absence of desire, she says. Its more of an innate thing. You cant explain why you dont want kids.

According to the INED study, neither gender, nor standard of living, nor professional category alone can explain why a growing number of people say they have no desire for children. It points instead to how attitudes and opinions increasingly weigh in the balance.

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Didier Breton, a professor of demography at the University of Strasbourg and associate researcher at INED, cautions against reading the figures as evidence of a fading desire to have children.

Its more a matter of changing social norms, he says. Twenty years ago, it was less acceptable for people to say they didnt want children, particularly for women. Today, its easier to express such a choice.

Breton points to several possible motives for not wanting children,including the physical transformations associated with pregnancy, a refusal to accept the constraints of parenthood, and a desire to preserve ones freedom and independence.

Its about making life-defining choices, such as prioritising your career, travelling, or simply not reproducing the family model youve known, he says.

Gender inequality

A2021 surveyof people who did not want children found that86 percent cited the desire to devote themselves to private life, relationships, friends and travel. In second place, 71 percent of respondents said they didnt identify with parenthood.

The latter figure conceals a major gender gap, with 45 percent of women answering not at all against 29 percent for men a discrepancy that is even wider among people aged under 30.

Gender inequality is a major factor in womens stance on whether or not they want children, says French sociologist Charlotte Debest, whose book Elles vont finir seules avec leur chats ("They will end up alone with their cats") will be published later this year.

The unequal division of domestic labour makes it harder for women to see themselves as mothers, Debest explains. Many women refuse to accept traditional models of the good mother that persist to this day. Such models are out of step with the aspirations of many young women.

Concern aboutclimate changeand the future of the planet isanother major factor.

In the 2021 survey, 63 percent of respondents cited environmental protection as a reason not to have children. The high percentage reflects bothgrowing ecological awareness and a tendency to seek an ethical motive for remaining childless, argues Debest.

Read moreThe French nationals going 'childfree' to save the planet

Using the ecological argument gives social legitimacy to people who choose not to have children, she explains. Instead of just saying, I dont want children, its a way to say youre giving up on children for their own good.

She adds: Of course, there are many childless people who are genuinely committed to environmental activism or concerned about the future of the planet.

The end of the three-child model

Such concerns are fuelling a rapid drop in Frances fertility rate, which slumped to 1.62 children per woman last year, down from 2.02 in 2010, hitting itslowest levelsince the end of the First World War.

The steady decline in recent years has promptedPresidentEmmanuel Macronto call for ademographic rearmamentof the nation with new reforms making it easier for people to have children which are yet to come into law.

According to the INED study, people who do want children are increasingly aiming for smaller families, largely because of economic constraints.

Among women under 30, the desired number of children has fallen from an average of 2.5in 2005 to 1.9 in 2024, the study found.

The high cost of living coupled with job and housing instability mean many people feel they simply cannot afford another child, says Debest. There is a new awareness of the cost of bringing up children.

Whereas 26 percent of French people said they wanted three children in 2005, the figure has now dropped to 15.5 percent.

We are witnessing the erosion of the three-child family model, which was once highly valued in France, says Breton, for whom the model is destined to disappear.

Zourli says she regularly receives Instagram messages from mothers wondering whether they should have a second child, and that many thank her for making them feel less guilty.

The societal pressure to have a nuclear family with a boy, a girl and their heterosexual parents remains strong, she adds. But it's being questioned more and more.

This article was adapted from theoriginal in Frenchby Benjamin Dodman.

Originally published on France24