These three priority districts of Perpignan are among the poorest in France

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In a recent study, INSEE, the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, reveals that the five poorest priority neighborhoods in France are located in Occitanie, and more precisely within the former Languedoc-Roussillon region. Among them, three districts of Perpignan are in this list.

Bas-Vernet, Kings of Majorca and Champs De Mars

The department of Pyrénées-Orientales is the department of metropolitan France which deplores the highest rate of unemployment in years. To this already known statistic is added an alarming new study from INSEE: among the nine urban policy districts (QPV), or priority districts in the city of Perpignan, three are quite simply among the poorest in France.

The district of Bas-Vernet, the neighborhood of Kings of Majorca and the district of Champs de Mars appear in this list, supplemented by the Pissevin-Valdegour district in Nîmes (Gard) and the Iranget Grangette district in Béziers (Hérault).

These three priority districts of Perpignan “bring together approximately 5,800 inhabitants”specifies INSEE, which adds this other figure: nearly 70% of the inhabitants of these three neighborhoods lived below the poverty line in 2020. Finally, and if it is not one of the poorest in France, “ the Diagonale district of Haut-Moyen Vernet (4,800 inhabitants) is hardly better off with 61% of inhabitants below the poverty line,” adds the institute

Finally, “between 2013 and 2018, the number of inhabitants declined very significantly in the QPV Old Center affected by rehabilitation operations, but it still remains the most populated with 7,700 inhabitants in 2018. The poverty rate there reached 52% in 2020,” continues INSEE.

Difficulties in the job market

“Higher levels of poverty in priority neighborhoods of Occitanie city policy are partly linked to the difficulties encountered by their inhabitants on the labor market,” the study continues. An observation which is confirmed in Perpignan:

The integration of young people from these neighborhoods into employment is particularly difficult. 46% of young people aged 16 to 25 in priority neighborhoods are neither in school nor in employment, compared to 31% in the city of Perpignan as a whole.

Also, the population of QPV is younger than elsewhere, with 38% of residents under 25 years old, compared to 30% in the municipality as a whole. The levels of education are lower than elsewhere, the data also specifies. “The highest diploma is a college diploma for 44% of residents priority districts of Perpignan”, figures INSEE.

Finally, four out of ten families are single-parent, and only 17% of households are owners of their housing in QPV, compared to 41% in the entire municipality of Perpignan.

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