Overview
- The Insee report published on July 9 showed that 15.4% of metropolitan France lived in monetary poverty in 2024, equal to 9.8 million people and the highest rate recorded since the series began.
- Poverty is concentrated among the unemployed and single-parent families, with unemployment linked to a 36.1% poverty rate and single-parent households near 34%, while retirees’ poverty fell to about 10.4%.
- The poverty threshold is defined as 60% of the median standard of living, which was €1,337 per month for a single person in 2024, and the median monthly income stood at €2,228.
- Insee attributes modest improvements at the bottom to a stronger labour market and revalorisations of the minimum wage, pensions and benefits but notes these gains did not exceed middle-income increases, helping explain the persistent high poverty rate and rising top-end incomes.
- Advocacy groups including the Collectif Alerte have called on the government to make eradication of deep poverty a political priority, a development likely to increase pressure for targeted benefits, wage policies and public debate over inequality.