A decline in the proportion of young people - On February 20, 1975, metropolitan France had a legal population of 52,665,802 inhabitants, an increase of 5.8 % since 1968. Beneath these figures, there are major shifts and changes of structure : firstly, the proportion of young people under twenty has steadily declined since 1968, while, during the same period, the proportion of adults and elderly people has increased. Next, the territorial distribution of the population has changed significantly (the continuing rapid growth of urban concentration, although it has fallen off somewhat since the preceeding intercensal period; a decrease in the attraction of the region of Ile-de-France; and a sizeable increase in the growth of medium sized citie...