BACKGROUND Despite the widespread use of highly effective contraceptive methods in France, one in every three pregnancies is unintended, of which 65% occur while using contraceptives. In the USA, 49% of pregnancies are unintended, half of which result from contraceptive failure. This study provides estimates of method-specific failure rates among French women. METHODS We use data from the 2000 Cocon Study, a population-based cohort, comprising a representative sample of 1689 women aged 18-44 years who described their contraceptive history. Piecewise-constant hazards models were used to estimate method-specific contraceptive failure rates during the first 5 years of contraceptive use. A random effect was introduced to take into account the fact that some women contribute more than 1 contraceptive episode. These same models were used to assess the effects of socio-demographic characteristics on the probability of contraceptive failure among pill, intrauterine device (IUD) and condom users. RESULTS Overall, 2.9% of women experienced a contraceptive failure in the first year of use and 8.4% in the first 5 years of use. The IUD had the lowest first year failure rate (1.1%), followed by the pill (2.4%), the condom (3.6%), fertility awareness methods (periodic abstinence or safe period by temperature) (7.7%), withdrawal (10.1%) and spermicides (21.7%). These failure rates varied little by user characteristics. CONCLUSIONS Lower failure rates among French women compared with those reported for US women suggest differences in contraceptive practices which need to be further explored.