L'espérance de vie par niveau de vie jusqu’en 2020-2024 - Méthode

In France, life expectancy disparities based on social class and education level have been analyzed for a long time, and more recently, the analysis has also been conducted by standard of living for the period 2012-2016 (see INSEE Première No. 1687 and Working Paper No. F1801). This new study aims to update the data with the recent period of 2020-2024, in order to analyze the evolution of life expectancy by standard of living between the two periods. A summary is published in INSEE Première No. 2085 and mortality tables are available in INSEE Résultats (published in December 2025).

The higher the income, the higher the life expectancy. Over the period 2020–2024, the gap in life expectancy at birth between the poorest 5% and the wealthiest 5% is 9 years for women and 13 years for men. Women in the wealthiest 5% live, on average, 17 years longer than men in the poorest 5%.

At age 50, the risk of dying within the year is 7 times greater among the poorest than among the wealthiest. For women, this risk ratio peaks at 6 at age 55.

Life expectancy increases less and less rapidly with the standard of living: at around €1,200 per month, an additional €100 in standard of living is associated with an extra 0.8 years of life expectancy for women and 1.0 years for men; the gain is only 0.1 years and 0.2 years at around €3,000 per month.

Between the periods 2012–2016 and 2020–2024, the gap in life expectancy between low-income and high-income individuals widened. Life expectancy for the poorest 25% has declined, except for the 5% with the lowest standard of living; at the same time, life expectancy for higher-income individuals has increased.