The UK now relies much more on immigration, while France still gets more growth from births.
Both countries are aging fast – and without migration, population decline would already be reality.
BenjaminHarrison88 on
Was it the wars that caused France to lag so much between 1900 and 1950 or something else?
Alone_Yam_36 on
2025:
UK: 68 million
France: 68 million
SheenPSU on
Almost tripling your population in 50 years is **wild**
Victim-of-Censorship on
“Natural” growth
EddieDexx on
Map of UK misses a large bunch of land in the 1710-1900 maps. That piece of land didn’t broke off until after year 1922. Just sayin’ 🤷♂️
melmboundanddown on
Strange the population growth was so slow in France from 1800 to 1850. Oh, wait, Napoleon.
LegDay_Gamer on
Well, france experienced the boom a lot earlier, the cut off is made for dramatic effect.
Beitter on
It’s crazy to imagine what France would look like with 150m inhabitants. The same ratio as 1800s.
Paris would be 20m habitants, other regional metropolis would be in the 5-10 m.
GDP could be also 3x bigger.
Ww1 and 2 likely vastly different. Germany would never have become a unified country.
Solid-Move-1411 on
It’s funny how none of the comments are mentioning the real reason lol
French Revolution crashed France TFR from 6-7 to just slightly above 2 and it only went more downhill from there.
France used to be most populated European country up until early 1800s even more than Russia. In late 1700s, France was in fact 4th or 5th most populated country in the world. If it maintained similar TFR to UK or Germany, France would be around 200M+ people today probably even more since English and Germans had migration rate to Americas unlike French.
brendonap on
Excuse my ignorance but what is the difference between net migration and natural growth? And why does it say 1990-2024
shortercrust on
I think most people don’t know how small the population of England used to be compared to its continental neighbours – especially France and Spain – during the Middle Ages and early modern period. It gives a different perspective when thinking about the history of that period, particularly the various conflicts involving England. England was up against enemies that vastly outmatched them in terms of manpower and resources.
EmergencyThese6791 on
Image that in the same time, many Englishmen and his families move to Americas co colonize the continent.
Few Frenchmen move to Americas.
Internal-Impression5 on
According to the historian it’s because France started its demographic transition way before the other European countries (as for 1770-1790) whereas it has started in the late 19th century in the rest of europe
Fern-ando on
UK beat France while being half the size.
Extreme_Bit_1135 on
France figured out birth control before anybody else.
Former-Chocolate-793 on
A couple of things:
1 the population of the UK would have included the modern day republic of Ireland prior to 1950.
2 Britain had massive emigration during the 19th and well into the 20th century. Mostly to the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Did the French emigrate in similar numbers? If so, where did they go?
Winndypops on
Hopefully we can see those numbers drop back down a couple million, would love to see Britain back around 40 million one day.
DerGyrosPitaFan on
It’s crazy how one of the reasons for brexit was to reduce immigration (especially from the ex-soviet member states like poland but also refugees because of the crisis in 2015), and yet immigration *tripled* with new laws, inviting people the pro-brexiters are even *less* fond of, with immigration surpassing that of the EU members like france
Shivrainthemad on
We need to fuck more between café and cigarette
Alphabet_Letter92 on
So basically large scale wars that define the century are bad for population growth.
Pristine-Breath6745 on
France not growing between 1900 and 1950 just shows how bad WW1 was for France.
Kefeng on
> In one glance
Posts a gallery of two images.
Everlast7 on
WW1 and WW2 did a number on france
madboy3296 on
Most of these are doctors and engineers I assume?
Alert_Mine7067 on
Sacre bleu/that’s nice
Harmenski on
This is why graphs were invented. What an awful way of representing data.
iheardthemetalclank on
So… France went through multiple wars and then accepted immigrants. Neat.
Ur-Than on
The effect of the Napoleonic wars here can’t be understated. Several cohorts almost sacrificed entirely for the glory of a tyrant.
mushybees83 on
Now do Ireland
Alan-TheDetroyer on
If you’ve ever driven across France and the UK it’s alarming how much bigger France really is, but half of it is empty af and the other half is full of French people so it’s practically uninhabitable
SirKazum on
Why is this a map? The maps are adding zero information. It’s all in numbers.
blackcoffee17 on
Same population, half the area.
m_faustus on
So you’re saying it’s the perfect time for Britain to invade again?
LongjumpingCook1574 on
This map is wrong. The UK did not look like that in all the pre 1950 pics.
anonyfool on
Part of the reason Napoleonic Wars happened was there was just so many French men available to recruit for war activities versus the other side.
DoDrinkMe on
Is that what happens after the English got their boot off the Scottish neck?
GarwayHFDS on
I never realised how big the population difference was during the Napoleonic wars.
Hefty_Anywhere_8537 on
Over 8 million people immigrated to the UK since 1990? That’s wild
39 Comments
The UK now relies much more on immigration, while France still gets more growth from births.
Both countries are aging fast – and without migration, population decline would already be reality.
Was it the wars that caused France to lag so much between 1900 and 1950 or something else?
2025:
UK: 68 million
France: 68 million
Almost tripling your population in 50 years is **wild**
“Natural” growth
Map of UK misses a large bunch of land in the 1710-1900 maps. That piece of land didn’t broke off until after year 1922. Just sayin’ 🤷♂️
Strange the population growth was so slow in France from 1800 to 1850. Oh, wait, Napoleon.
Well, france experienced the boom a lot earlier, the cut off is made for dramatic effect.
It’s crazy to imagine what France would look like with 150m inhabitants. The same ratio as 1800s.
Paris would be 20m habitants, other regional metropolis would be in the 5-10 m.
GDP could be also 3x bigger.
Ww1 and 2 likely vastly different. Germany would never have become a unified country.
It’s funny how none of the comments are mentioning the real reason lol
French Revolution crashed France TFR from 6-7 to just slightly above 2 and it only went more downhill from there.
France used to be most populated European country up until early 1800s even more than Russia. In late 1700s, France was in fact 4th or 5th most populated country in the world. If it maintained similar TFR to UK or Germany, France would be around 200M+ people today probably even more since English and Germans had migration rate to Americas unlike French.
Excuse my ignorance but what is the difference between net migration and natural growth? And why does it say 1990-2024
I think most people don’t know how small the population of England used to be compared to its continental neighbours – especially France and Spain – during the Middle Ages and early modern period. It gives a different perspective when thinking about the history of that period, particularly the various conflicts involving England. England was up against enemies that vastly outmatched them in terms of manpower and resources.
Image that in the same time, many Englishmen and his families move to Americas co colonize the continent.
Few Frenchmen move to Americas.
According to the historian it’s because France started its demographic transition way before the other European countries (as for 1770-1790) whereas it has started in the late 19th century in the rest of europe
UK beat France while being half the size.
France figured out birth control before anybody else.
A couple of things:
1 the population of the UK would have included the modern day republic of Ireland prior to 1950.
2 Britain had massive emigration during the 19th and well into the 20th century. Mostly to the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Did the French emigrate in similar numbers? If so, where did they go?
Hopefully we can see those numbers drop back down a couple million, would love to see Britain back around 40 million one day.
It’s crazy how one of the reasons for brexit was to reduce immigration (especially from the ex-soviet member states like poland but also refugees because of the crisis in 2015), and yet immigration *tripled* with new laws, inviting people the pro-brexiters are even *less* fond of, with immigration surpassing that of the EU members like france
We need to fuck more between café and cigarette
So basically large scale wars that define the century are bad for population growth.
France not growing between 1900 and 1950 just shows how bad WW1 was for France.
> In one glance
Posts a gallery of two images.
WW1 and WW2 did a number on france
Most of these are doctors and engineers I assume?
Sacre bleu/that’s nice
This is why graphs were invented. What an awful way of representing data.
So… France went through multiple wars and then accepted immigrants. Neat.
The effect of the Napoleonic wars here can’t be understated. Several cohorts almost sacrificed entirely for the glory of a tyrant.
Now do Ireland
If you’ve ever driven across France and the UK it’s alarming how much bigger France really is, but half of it is empty af and the other half is full of French people so it’s practically uninhabitable
Why is this a map? The maps are adding zero information. It’s all in numbers.
Same population, half the area.
So you’re saying it’s the perfect time for Britain to invade again?
This map is wrong. The UK did not look like that in all the pre 1950 pics.
Part of the reason Napoleonic Wars happened was there was just so many French men available to recruit for war activities versus the other side.
Is that what happens after the English got their boot off the Scottish neck?
I never realised how big the population difference was during the Napoleonic wars.
Over 8 million people immigrated to the UK since 1990? That’s wild