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. 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 labour force and medical advances led to a deficit in the French Social Security system which reached 13.3 billion francs in 1998.