Who is wealthy in France? The Observatory of Inequalities responds and rekindles the talk | EUROtoday

How a lot do it’s essential earn to be wealthy in France? The sum of three,860 euros after taxes for a single particular person, 5,790 euros for a pair, 9,650 euros for a household with two youngsters, responds the Observatory of Inequalities, within the third version of its report on the wealthy, printed Wednesday June 5.

Therefore, 4.7 million French individuals are wealthy, calculates the Observatory, based mostly on 2021 information from INSEE. This represents 7.4% of the inhabitants. This is lower than in 2011, when there have been 5.5 million wealthy individuals within the nation, a file within the final twenty years.

The variety of wealthy individuals due to this fact decreased by virtually 800,000 individuals between 2011 and 2021 – however these, particularly on the high of the dimensions, are more and more higher off. Half of them truly take pleasure in a lifestyle greater than 1.28 occasions the wealth threshold, in comparison with 1.26 in 2011. In addition, the wealthiest captured 7.7% of all revenue earlier than taxes within the early Nineteen Eighties: this determine rose to 12.6% in 2022. “Since the previous report published in 2022, we have observed an intensification of wealth rather than an overall increase in inequalities”, summarizes Louis Maurin, director of the observatory. The wealthy are getting richer, however fewer in quantity, briefly.

But the topic raises the thorny query of the definition of wealth, removed from reaching consensus. How did the Observatory of Inequalities set the brink of three,860 euros for an individual, when there isn’t a statistical and “official” definition of wealth in France? Quite merely based mostly on the poverty threshold, which is outlined by INSEE, and which makes it potential to focus on public insurance policies on essentially the most modest.

A political query

This poverty threshold is decided based mostly on the median lifestyle, which divides the inhabitants into two equal elements: at present, it’s 1,930 euros after taxes and social advantages, nonetheless for a single particular person. INSEE due to this fact considers that you just belong to the poorest section of the inhabitants while you earn lower than 60% of this median lifestyle, a determine additionally utilized in different European Union international locations.

There can also be a 50% threshold: that is the one utilized by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the one utilized by the observatory. “We considered that the rich were those who received double this median standard of living”, explains Mr. Maurin. Hence the determine of three,860 euros.

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