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Over 14 percent of the French live below poverty line

Oliver Gee
Oliver Gee - [email protected]
Over 14 percent of the French live below poverty line
A person searches for discarded fruit and vegetables following a Sunday market in Toulouse. Photo: AFP

Nearly nine million French people are living below the poverty line, according data released on Tuesday.

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France's poverty threshold, which is equal to 60 percent of the median income, is set at €1,008 a month.
 
The national statistics agency Insee revealed on Tuesday that France can count 8.8 million people as living on less than this. 
 
That means 14.1 percent of the population live below the poverty line.
 
The figures, gathered from 2014, saw a rise of 0.1 percentage points from the previous year. 
 
The authors of the study noted that the slight increase was "insignificant from a statistical point of view given the inherent uncertainty that comes with using a sample survey". 
 
Those hit most by poverty in France were the unemployed and the single parents, with 37 and 36 percent of the people in these situations respectively living below the poverty line.
 
Around 8 percent of retirees are also living below the line, the study found.
 
The report estimated that half of French people have an annual income of less than €20,150 a year (€1,679 per month). The poorest 10 percent live on less than €10,770 a month.
 
The wealthiest 10 percent live on more than €37,260 a year, more than 3.5 times higher than the poorest 10 percent. 
 

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