Insee Première · April 2026 · n° 2098

Among farming households, inequalities in the standards of living were more pronounced than among all working households in most agricultural regions

In France (excluding Guadeloupe, French Guiana and Mayotte), in 2020, the median standard of living for members of farming households (€22,700 per year) was very close to that of working households. It was higher in areas specialising in crop farming, viticulture or the rearing of grain-fed livestock (pigs, poultry). Conversely, it was lower than that of other working households in areas where herbivore livestock farming predominates.

Standards of living were more widely dispersed among farming households than among working households as a whole. Inequalities among farming households were particularly high in Corsica, Reunion, Martinique, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, the Bordeaux region, certain agricultural regions of the Paris Basin and along the Rhône.

Among working households, farming households were over-represented at both the lower and upper ends of the standards of living scale. Thus, in 2020, one in six people in farming households lived below the poverty line, a higher proportion than among working households as a whole. At the same time, the wealthiest 10% of farming households had higher standards of living than those of the wealthiest other working households.