Does Religious Practice Affect Fertility in France?

Arnaud Régnier-Loilier, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)
France Prioux, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)

No recent study of the relationship between fertility and religion has been carried out in France, in the absence of an adequate source of data. In 2005, for the first time, a specific question on religious affiliation or origin was included in the GGS survey, with a question on frequency of religious practice. In this study we present a portrait of religious France, construct a cohort-specific “relative” indicator of religious practice, and compare four sub-groups in terms of their fertility behaviour from one cohort to the next: completed fertility, childlessness and timing of the first birth. Regular religious practice continues to be associated with high completed fertility, and more recently a relationship has emerged between religious practice and both couple childlessness and first birth timing.