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A population pyramid and its changes over time provide a visual account of a country's history. The French population pyramid has changed continuously since the outbreak of the First World War. Here, we will stop the clock every 20 years, and focus on the situation in 1914, 1934,1954,1974, 1994 and 2014.
On 1 January 1914, on the eve of the First World War, the population pyramid of France had a regular bell shape (see page 2). The indent at age 42 corresponds to the birth deficit due to the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871, aggravated by a sudden increase in infant mortality: some 23% of babies born in 1871 died before age one, versus 17% on average in the second half of the nineteenth century. In 1911, a very hot summer produced another infant mortality peak due to severe infantile diarrhoea, and this explains the dent in the 1914 pyramid at age 2.
Twenty years later, on 1 January 1934, the pyramid bears the scars of the 1914-1918 War, with a narrowing on the male side at ages 38 to 55. There are 25% fewer men than women at these ages, in contrast to all ages up to 35, where the sexes are balanced. One and a half million French soldiers were killed in the Great War. It was men born in 1894, and who were aged 20 in 1914 who paid the heaviest tribute: 24% lost their lives while inuniform.[l, 2]
The number of births halved between 1915 and 1919, and the 1934 population pyramid shows a large gash at ages 14-18, this time affecting both sexes.
When these depleted cohorts reached childbearing age 25-30 years later, they produced a second gash which, while smaller than the first,...