Saint-Cyr-au-Mont-d'Or, near Lyon (Rhône), La Mosson, in Montpellier (Hérault) Even if large cities are places of diversity, “within cities, the poorest and most affluent populations tend to separate from each other and regroup among themselves”notes the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee) in its annual report on the income and assets of French households.
Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers In twenty years, wealth inequalities have exploded
Read later
For the first time, the institute mapped pockets of wealth and poverty in all urban units with more than 10,000 inhabitants, and identified 2,300 neighborhoods, particularly “modest” or “well-off”, bringing together 11 million people. . This geographical approach is innovative, even if it does not allow the analysis of the numerous intermediate districts, captured by other studies, such as that of Apur for Greater Paris.
The Décoders focused on “large cities”, the 59 urban areas with more than 100,000 inhabitants, by representing INSEE data in the form of a polar graph, that is to say a polygon drawing the profile of urban areas based on several data: share of so-called rich or poor households, surface area occupied by each type of neighborhood or according to the median income of residents, etc. A typology in four groups emerges:
Find this ranking and the analyzes of geographers and sociologists. An exploratory map of all the cities, highlighting the pockets of wealth and poverty identified by INSEE is available at the end of the article.
Cities that concentrate rich neighborhoods: Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Annecy…
How to read these graphs?
Each graph represents the profile of one of the cities selected, drawn from the variables proposed by INSEE: share of “rich” and “poor” households, surface area occupied by each of these types of neighborhood or even median income of the urban unit. For each of the parameters, the values were calibrated from 0 to 10 to allow comparison.
HoverTouch profiles to display details.
For example, the city above has a median standard of living significantly lower than the median standard of living of other cities, but also a greater share of its population living in the poorest neighborhoods and, conversely, a share population living in the richest neighborhoods is smaller, almost half as much as in all other cities.
The urban areas with the most wealthy neighborhoods
Sources: INSEE and The World
In this first category of cities, the median standard of living is much higher than the average, the population of rich neighborhoods, as well as their associated surface area, is significantly larger than that of poor neighborhoods.
The metropolis of Paris is very representative of this pattern, with a large population with high incomes grouping together in pockets of wealth which extend into Paris intramural, and surrounding areas, to the west and to the south. Nearly 35% of residents – or 3.8 million inhabitants – live in these “rich neighborhoods” occupying nearly 20% of the total surface area. Conversely, pockets of poverty comprising 9.5% of the population – or 1 million inhabitants – are confined to 3% of the surface area and are distributed between the central city, the north and the east, mainly in Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-d'Oise.
You have 76.04% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
