Population: 58,978,172 (July 1999 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 19% (male 5,638,462; female 5,375,911)
15-64 years: 65% (male 19,302,121; female 19,235,235)
65 years and over: 16% (male 3,825,232; female 5,601,211) (1999 est.)

Population growth rate: 0.27% (1999 est.)

Birth rate: 11.38 births/1,000 population (1999 est.)

Death rate: 9.17 deaths/1,000 population (1999 est.)

Net migration rate: 0.53 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1999 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: 0.68 male(s)/female
total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (1999 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 5.62 deaths/1,000 live births (1999 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 78.63 years
male: 74.76 years
female: 82.71 years (1999 est.)

Total fertility rate: 1.61 children born/woman (1999 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.)