The latest study by Insee on poverty, published on September 1st, reveals that one in five households in France is poor, whether in monetary or material terms.
In its study, which focuses on the year 2019, Insee differentiates between two types of poverty: monetary poverty, which is easier to understand as it involves households whose income is less than 60% of the median income, and material poverty or “living conditions,” which Insee defines as “measuring the consequences of low income: deprivations, inability to acquire or consume certain goods, achieve a certain level of comfort, or meet certain essential expenses.”
Thus, in 2019, one in five households was poor in one way or the other. Specifically, 13.1% of households are in material poverty, 13.6% are “monetarily” poor, and 5.7% of households experience both material and monetary poverty.
Regarding the household typology, poverty, whether monetary or material, particularly affects households where the reference person is unemployed: nearly two-thirds (68.4%) are in poverty, with 33% (or one-third) affected by both types of poverty.
Similarly, according to Insee, more than 4 in 10 (41.7%) single-parent families are affected by some form of poverty, compared to 32.9% of couples with three or more children and 27.9% of individuals living alone.
