France: Households by size in 2016

In 2015, most of households in France were composed by one or two people. That year more than 10 million households were one-person households. This number shows a demographic evolution in France, as well as in other European countries. The share of French people living alone went from 14.9 percent in 2007 up to 16.4 percent only ten years later.

Who are the French who live alone?

According to French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), the majority of people living alone were seniors aged from 65 years old and older. The growing life expectancy might be one of the reasons of the increase in the number of people living alone in France. On the other hand, the extension of studies seems to also have an impact on the proportion of single households in the country. Millennials have their first job at a later stage; they remain students for a longer time than before and are therefore more willing to live alone. In 2015, nearly 20 percent of French citizens aged between 20 and 24 years old were living alone.

Families in France

Even though a lot of French people live alone, it appears that France is the European country which had the highest number of private households with three children or more. In 2015, there were more than 8 million families in France, of which more than 6.2 million were composed of a couple with children. Family structure is evolving in France with more children born-out-wedlock who are being raised in single-parent families.