70% of poor people in 2016 remained poor the following year, a persistence that has increased since 2008

In Metropolitan France, one in seven persons was living below the monetary poverty threshold. These situations are often long-lasting and the persistence of poverty from one year to another is increasing between 2008 and 2017. 70% of people who were poor in 2016 were still in this situation the following year, whereas 63% of 2008 poor people remained poor in 2009. This persistence of poverty was particularly high for low- or non-graduates, children and people aged 65 or older.

If one-third of people who were poor one year were no longer poor the next, their poverty exit was not always long-lasting. Over a four-year period, only 20% of people who were poor in the first year were no longer poor in the following three years, 40% remained permanently poor, and 40% alternated between poverty and non-poverty. This distribution was stable between 2008 and 2017.

The risk of moving into poverty for people living above the poverty threshold in the previous three years was low, 3% in 2017. This risk is significantly higher for people who have already been poor in the previous three years, and rises with the number of years already spent in poverty.