The data collected relate to the characteristics of:

• of the individual: sex, age, marital status, place of birth, nationality, place of study, diplomas, previous place of residence (one year before), job, socio-professional category, economic activity sector, place of work, etc.;

• the household: composition, size, family ties, number of cars, etc.;

• of the dwelling: type, year of completion, size, type of occupation, HLM, heating, bathroom, sewage disposal, year of move-in, parking,etc.

The processing of the data collected uses:

• the French nomenclature of activities: NAF revision 2 adopted in 2008;
• the nomenclature of professions and socio-professional categories (PCS) adopted in 2020;
• the official geographical code (COG).

Jobs are mainly distributed according to:

• the sector of activity of the NAF 2008 in 5, 17 or 38 items;
• the socio-professional category of the PCS 2020 in 6 or 29 items;
• working hours, status (employee or self-employed), employment conditions (trainee, fixed-term contract, permanent contract, etc.).

Employment : In the census, employed persons can be counted at their place of residence or at their place of work. At the place of residence, we speak of the active population with a job. At the place of work, we speak of employment at the place of work or, more briefly, employment.

Since 2004, the census has made it possible to take better account than before of working people who have a job, even if it is occasional or of short duration, and who are also students, retired or unemployed.

A dwelling is a room used for habitation:

• Separate, i.e. enclosed by walls and partitions, without communication with any other premises except with the common parts of the building (corridor, staircase, etc.);

• Independent, i.e. having an entrance with direct access to the outside or to the common parts of the building.

Dwellings are divided into four categories: main residences, secondary residences, occasional dwellings, vacant dwellings.

Mobile homes and premises used for habitation within communities (old people's homes, hostels, religious communities, etc.) are not considered as dwellings. Dwellings located within a community (called "official dwellings") are, however, considered as dwellings.

A household in the sense of a household dwelling is made up of all the people living in the same dwelling, which constitutes their usual residence, whatever the family ties between these people.

A household may consist of a single person.

A household may consist of zero, one, or more families.

A family in the sense of household-family analysis is made up of people in the same household who form a couple, with or without children, or a single-parent family.

• A “traditional” family is a couple with child(ren) where all the children living in the home are children of the couple.
• A blended family is a couple with child(ren) where at least one child living in the home is not a child of the couple, but of only one of the spouses.
• A single-parent family is made up of a person living with one or more of their children, and not living as a couple with another member of the household.

A child, in the sense of the household-family analysis, is a person of any age living in the same household as at least one of their parents, and who is neither the parent of a child in the household nor in a couple with another person in the household.

Dwelling, the household, the family, the individual.

Persons residing in metropolitan France, in the overseas departments except Mayotte, and in the overseas collectivity of Saint-Martin.

not applicable

Year N

not applicable

Starting with the 2024 annual census survey, the current nomenclature of occupations and socio-professional categories is that of 2020 (PCS 2020), replacing the PCS 2003 previously used (since the 2004 annual census survey).

The two most aggregated levels, with 6 positions (known as the 1-position level) and 29 positions (known as the 2-position level), remain unchanged in scope and content compared to the previous versions from 1982 and 2003.

However, unlike the previous nomenclature, it only describes the socio-professional situation of all people in employment.

Information on employment status can be used as a complement to obtain a variable for classifying the population as a whole, including people who have never worked, who may be pupils or students, unemployed, homemakers, retired, etc.

At the detailed level, occupations have been thoroughly renovated (311 positions in the 2020 version versus 486 in the 2003 version).

As with the PCS 2003, in the census, the detailed occupation is only available for

people in employment. For people who are not working or are no longer working (unemployed, retired), the

additional information is not rich enough to guarantee a good coding of their previous occupation. For these populations, only socio-professional categories are available.

In addition to the historical PCS socio-professional categories, a new categorization has been developed: the "Household PCS".

It enables us to analyze society not only from the point of view of individuals, but also from the point of view of households, complementing the traditional approach based on the reference person.

The "Household PCS" combines two criteria for analyzing social differences that are usually considered separately: the configuration of the household and the socio-professional status of its individuals, generally the reference person and his/her spouse.

This categorization makes it possible to account for the different situations of professional activity within

households, without prioritizing gender, age or the economic position of any single household member.