Insee Analyses · April 2025 · n° 107

Monetary poverty, deprivation and financial difficulties: situations that only partially overlap

Poverty, defined as a lack of financial means, is assessed each year by INSEE using two complementary approaches. The monetary approach is based on household income, while the material and social deprivation approach is based on the observation of living conditions. This paper also incorporates a subjective approach based on how households feel about their financial situation based on how they make ends meet at the end of the month.

At the beginning of 2023 in France, 4% of people living in ordinary housing were experiencing a combination of monetary poverty, material and social deprivation and financial difficulties at the end of the month. A further 10% were affected by two of these three situations, and 18% by just one. These three situations partially overlapped, the subjective approach being the most frequent in the population. For example, owners with mortgage were less affected by poverty according to the monetary approach, but declared significantly more financial difficulties. Craftsmen and farmers were in the opposite situation.

Children, single-parent and large families, tenants, unemployed people and people living in urban areas were among those most affected by poverty, whatever the approach adopted.