The most recent census was in March 1999. On 1 January 2000, Metropolitan and Overseas France had 60.4 million inhabitants, including 4 million foreign residents of whom 1.5 million were European Union nationals. The fertility rate is 1.77 children per woman. 71,200 schools, coll ges and lyc es . The French Social Security system was introduced in 1945.
Public financing accounts for only a fifth of total resources.
However, the growing number of pensioners compared to the labor force and medical advances led to a deficit in the French Social Security system which reached 13.3 billion francs in 1998.