A pregnant woman poses on June 19, 2018 in Vertou, western France. France had an estimated population of 68.4 million by January 1, 2024, representing a further year-on-year increase of 0.3 percent, limited by a marked drop in the birth rate, the INSEE national statistics bureau of France reported on January 16, 2024. In 2023, 678,000 babies were born in France, 6.6 percent fewer than the previous year, the lowest number of births in any year since 1946. Over the same period, there were 631,000 deaths, down 6.5 percent on 2022, a year marked by the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and episodes of extreme heat. (Photo by Loic Venance/AFP Photo)

Girls hold hands as they arrive their New Year parties in Newcastle, England on December 31, 2019. (Photo by Craig Connor/North News and Pictures)

A tourist crosses flooded St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy on November 11, 2012. Flooding is common this time of year and Sunday's level that reached a peak of 58.66 inches was below the 63 inches recorded four years ago in the worst flooding in decades. (Photo by Luigi Costantini/Associated Press)

A woman prepares to release carps to Hoan Kiem lake on Kitchen God's Day as part of the traditional Vietnamese Lunar New Year celebrations, the biggest festival of the year in Hanoi, Vietnam on February 4, 2021. (Photo by Kham via Reuters)

A male sea lion Leo writes the word of tiger in Chinese character at a New Year's attraction to celebrate the Year of the Tiger at the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise aquarium in Yokohama, suburban Tokyo on Monday, January 3, 2022. The calligraphy attraction by the sea lion will be carried through January 31. (Photo by Yoshio Tsunoda/AFLO/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A woman offers prayers at a temple during the Chinese New Year celebrations in Yokohama Chinatown, near Tokyo, Japan, 29 January 2025. The celebrations of the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, which falls on 29 January 2025, are held in Yokohama Chinatown, Japan's largest Chinatown. (Photo by Franck Robichon/EPA/EFE)

Fireworks explode over the Quadriga statue atop the Brandenburg Gate on New Year's Eve on January 1, 2012 in Berlin, Germany. According to the media, up to one million people celebrate the country's biggest New Year's Eve Party. (Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)

Lava erupts from the Piton de la Fournaise “Peak of the Furnace” volcano, on the southeastern corner of the Indian Ocean island of Reunion Saturday, August 1, 2015. Spewing red-hot lava, one of the most active volcanoes in the world is currently erupting on this Indian Ocean island, where the world's attention has been focused since a wing fragment believed to be from the missing Malaysian jet was discovered washed up on a beach. The lava fountains are shooting as high as 40 meters (44 yards) and are creating cones that are about 20 meters high after only one day of eruption, said Peltier. The volcano is in the Reunion National Park – a world heritage site. The volcano is not seen as dangerous because the lava flows down the east side of the mountain through an uninhabited area called the Grand Brule, or the Big Burned, toward the sea. The last times the volcano threatened the population was in 1977 and 1986. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)