Insee Première · November 2023 · n° 1973

Inequality and poverty on the rise in 2021

In 2021, in metropolitan France, the median annual standard of living for people living in ordinary housing was 23,160 euros. 9.1 million people lived below the monetary poverty line, which was 1,158 euros per month for a single person in 2021.

The upturn in activity in 2021 has been accompanied by a rise in labour income and dividends received by households, which has been more pronounced for the wealthiest households, whose standard of living increased. Conversely, the non-renewal of the exceptional solidarity benefits paid in 2020 in connection with the health crisis has weighed on the living standards of the most modest households, which fell in 2021. The poverty rate rose by 0.9 percentage point in 2021, from 13.6% to 14.5%. Poverty intensity also increased, rising from 18.7% in 2020 to 20.2% in 2021.

Even if trends between 2019 and 2020 remained uncertain, due to the particular survey collection conditions in 2020 and the fragility of the indicators in this atypical year, France has emerged from the Covid episode in 2021 with a higher poverty rate than when it entered.