France has overtaken Ireland to become the European nation with the highest birthrate after decades of policies to promote childbearing and large families.

More children were born in 2006 than in any year since 1981, the National Statistics Institute said, taking the fertility rate to two babies per woman for the first time since 1974. This compares with about 1.8 in Britain, which also has one of the higher rates. The slowly rising European Union average is 1.52, and the rate needed to replenish generations is 2.07.

French officials hailed the 3 per cent rise as confirmation of the success of expensive schemes to encourage couples to produce more children, while also remaining in the workforce. French women now give birth at an average age of 30, and half the children are born outside marriage. Almost 50 per cent of the working population is female. The birthrate among immigrants generally matched that of native-born French.

“French women are an exception because they are managing a high fertility rate along with a high rate of employment without heavy recourse to part-time working,” said Rachel Silvera, a Paris University demographer. “We had been afraid that with rising unemployment and longer studies, women would only have one child. In fact they have delayed having a baby, and then had two,” she said.

French governments began promoting childbirth more than a century ago after the stagnating, heavily rural population was overtaken by Germany’s and Britain’s. The birthrate has been climbing since a low point in 1994. Parents are helped by a system of allowances, free daycare and universal nursery schooling, cut-price transport and generous income tax reductions.

In 2005 the Government of Dominique de Villepin raised to 750 euros (£495) the monthly payout for women who stay at home for one year to care for a third child. “The birthrate is still insufficient in our country,” the Prime Minister said then. “If the number of families with three children doubled, the replacement of generations would be assured.”

Ségolène Royal, the Socialist candidate for this spring’s presidential elections, has made motherhood and women’s rights a big element in her campaign. Nicolas Sarkozy, her centre-right opponent, is also promising to raise spending on childcare.

News of the rise in birthrate last year was greeted as a sign that France would be able to finance the retirement pensions and healthcare of the ageing baby-boom population. “They said France was gloomy and worried, but it offers a surprise: it is having children,” said La Croix, the Catholic daily. Hervé Lebras, a demographer, cautioned that it would take two decades for the babies of 2006 to start work and paying taxes. “But thanks to the policies of the past, France is now well-armed to ensure its fertility,” he said.

France is on course to become the most populous country in Europe by 2050, overtaking Germany. Its rising birthrate brought the population of the mainland overseas territories to to 63.4 million this month, the statistics institute said. Britain’s population is about 61 million. Germany introduced French-style incentives last year for couples to produce children. Its population is expected to drop from today’s 82 million to under 70 million unless women can be encouraged to have more.

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