The map of the departments of France according to the poverty rate of its inhabitants (at the threshold of 60% of the median income in France) is particularly telling.
In its fourth report on poverty in France, the Observatory of Inequalities seeks to draw up a geographical portrait of this.
Poverty rate gaps triple
Part of the Mediterranean rim, the north of France, Seine-Saint-Denis and the Overseas Territories stand out. The poverty rate is around 20% and even exceeds 30% in some.
The western coast, on the other hand, as well as the northern Alpine departments, are distinguished by much lower poverty rates.
The three departments with the highest poverty rate are Réunion (36.1%), Seine-Saint-Denis (28.4%) and Martinique (26.8%). And those where this rate is the lowest are Vendée (9.1%), Haute-Savoie (9.5%) and Yvelines as well as Loire-Atlantique (10.5%).
These figures may overlap with other measurements. Even if Creuse with 19.2% poverty rate is a counter-example.
Because the most modest live mainly in big cities. A little less than two thirds of the poorest French people live in central cities (36.3% of all poor people) and their suburbs (26.6%). The others live in peri-urban areas (30.7%) and isolated rural areas (6.4%).
Roubaix, Saint-Benoît and Saint-André
In the regions, the poverty rate varies threefold: from 11% in Pays de la Loire to 36.1% in Reunion (calculation at 60% of the median standard of living). This rate is 13.8 in New Aquitaine and 13.5% in Center-Val de Loire.
Among cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants, Roubaix, in the North, Saint-Benoît and Saint-André, on Reunion Island, have the highest poverty rates.
Conversely, it is in Gif-sur-Yvette (Essonne), with 5%, Montaigu-Vendée (Vendée), Maisons-Laffitte (Yvelines), Vertou (Loire-Atlantique), Le Plessis-Robinson (Hauts- de-Seine) and Le Chesnay-Rocquencourt (Yvelines) with 6% where the rates are the lowest.
Neighborhoods where the rate exceeds 70%
Half of the inhabitants of priority neighborhoods of urban policy (QPV) live on less than 1,213 euros per month (for a single person after social benefits and taxes), indicates the Observatory of Inequalities.
In certain neighborhoods the poverty rate sometimes exceeds 70% such as in Perpignan (Bas-Vernet, Rois de Mallorca and Champs de Mars), in Nîmes (Pissevin-Valdegour), Béziers (Iranget Grangette), Toulon (Pontcarral) or Carpentras ( Pous-du-Plan).
This high poverty is partly explained by common characteristics. “If their inhabitants have few resources, it is in particular because of their profile. These territories in fact concentrate the population categories most exposed to poverty” : a young population, single-parent families, less qualified workers.
Report on poverty in France, 2024-2025 edition. Under the direction of Anne Brunner and Louis Maurin, ed. Observatory of Inequalities, 88 pages, December 2024. On sale only on inegalites.fr.
