Between 2009 and 2010, more than 4% of the population escaped poverty, 8% remained poor, and 5% fell into poverty. Over the period 2004-2010, half of the people whose standards of living fell below the poverty threshold in a given year remained poor the following year, and nearly one out of three remains so after three years. Living as a couple rather than being single diminishes the risk of being poor, to a lesser extent however if the partner with whom one is living is not working (student, retired, housebound). Furthermore, the likelihood of being affected by poverty increases in the year following a separation. Moreover, the risk of being poor diminishes at the time of a birth the previous year. The risk of remaining poor is relatively important: even taking into account the characteristics of the individual and the household concerned, the likelihood of remaining poor from one year to the next is higher than that of becoming so. In fact, while certain characteristics diminish the risk of being affected by poverty, they do not always help the individual to escape it. In particular, even if living as a couple essentially protects against poverty, poor people have no more chance of escaping poverty if they live as a couple or live alone. Likewise, executives, when they fall into poverty, have no significantly higher chance than employees of escaping poverty.