France has 4.5 million “rich”, according to the Observatory of Inequalities

Who is rich in France? Modesty often prevents you from admitting it for yourself and it’s always someone else, the one who earns more. For the Observatory of Inequalities which publishes, this 1er June 2022, two years after the first edition, its new report on “The rich in France”, France has 4.5 million, or 7.1% of the population.

“The public of the rich is little studied, observes Louis Maurin, founder and animator of this association. There is indeed a poverty threshold, with indicators of material deprivation: why would INSEE not publish a threshold of wealth or fortune with indicators of well-off living conditions, as exists in Germany? », he asks. The Inequalities Observatory has therefore created its wealth threshold, twice the median salary, i.e. 3,673 euros per month (including social benefits and deducted taxes) for a single adult, 5,511 euros for two adults and 7,713 euros for a family with two children under the age of 14, according to its 2022 scale based on 2019 income.

The threshold of 3,673 euros, chosen by the Observatory of Inequalities, may seem low, closer to wealth than to wealth, but that of the richest 10% is below, at 3,328 euros per month. ; for the richest 5%, it is 4,156 euros; for the 1% (i.e. 630,000 people), at 7,180 euros; at 17,538 euros for the 0.1%; and 54,497 euros per month for the 0.01%. By way of comparison, 7.3% of Germans live on more than 4,052 euros per month, for a single person, or a similar amount.

Read also: Can we determine a “threshold of wealth”, as we define a “threshold of poverty”?

“imperfect tool”

“The “wealth threshold” tool is imperfect and does not, for example, take into account the weight of housing, any more than the poverty threshold.points out Mr. Maurin. The situation of a landlord who has already repaid his credit has nothing to do with that of a tenant with high rent or a young indebted buyer. » To define wealth, he believes, “this notion of threshold should be enriched with indicators of living conditions, for example owning a second home, going on vacation abroad, employing staff, just as the poverty threshold already has a list of material deprivation such as not going on vacation, having to skip meals or give up treatment…”

The proportion of 7.1% of the well-endowed population, according to the calculations of Pierre Madec, an economist at the French Observatory of Economic Conditions, is also in decline. It was 8.6% in 2010, and 745,000 “rich” have therefore evaporated. “For them, the most prosperous period seems to be over.analyzes Anne Brunner, director of studies at the Observatory of Inequalities. The standard of living of the 10% of the wealthiest people increased almost continuously between 1998 and 2008, with an average annual gain of 13,000 euros over the period”, an increase of 27% in their income, much higher than that of the middle and working classes. Then, the financial crisis of 2008 interrupted this golden age and, in 2019, the richest 10% regain the same standard of living as in 2009.

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