The Great War (1914-1918): a demographic catastrophe. Immediate and long-term consequences of the Second World War on the French population

ABSTRACT

Since the start of the third millennium, France has witnessed two significant mortality crises the first, due to the period of excessively high temperatures experienced in August 2003;and the second, due to the still ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. These events have resulted in considerable numbers of excess deaths. But, compared with the demographic consequences of the First World War over the short, medium and long term, they appear almost anecdotal. This educational fact file looks in detail at the effects of the 1914-1918 war on the French population. The first part of the file paints a picture of the demographic situation in Metropolitan France just prior to the conflict, before we move on to look at the scale of the loss of life, which wiped out generations of young men (part 2), the significant reduction in fertility due to the separation of couples during the conflict (part 3), and the major and permanent consequences of excess deaths and a lower birth rate on the population pyramid of France (part 4). Lastly, in part 5, we conclude by putting the significance of the crises associated with the heatwave of 2003 and the COVID-19 pandemic into perspective. © 2022 Authors. All rights reserved.