France, Social Portrait 2021 edition
This work provides a perspective on more than a year of a health crisis with unprecedented economic and social impacts: How has the population's mortality and health changed throughout the waves of Covid-19? To what extent have the preventive measures been adopted? How has the healthcare system been affected? Which regions were most affected by the drop in births seen nine months after the first lockdown? What impact has the crisis had on household income and the job market? What effect did the crisis have on young people?
In 2020, despite the health crisis, household purchasing power remained stable and savings grew
Henri Martin (Insee)
As a result of the Covid-19 health crisis and its effects on the economy, household primary income (earnings and wealth) fell sharply in 2020: gross wages paid dropped by 4.1%, mixed income of the self-employed (excluding operating subsidies) fell by 8.0% and net property income decreased by more than 12%. Nevertheless, this drop was offset by a decrease in salary deductions and an increase in social benefits and assistance paid to households and self-employed workers through the wide-scale use of the partial activity compensation scheme, existing social protection measures (unemployment benefits, statutory minimum incomes etc.) and exceptional measures (solidarity funds for the self-employed, exceptional support for the poorest households etc.). Thanks to this public aid, and despite an unprecedented slowdown in economic activity, household purchasing power remained stable on average in 2020. Compared to previous recessions (1973, 1993 and 2009), this crisis stands out both in terms of its intensity and because of the number of public policies implemented to limit its effects on household purchasing power.
In any case, households significantly reduced their consumption (−6.5% in terms of value compared to 2019), given the restrictions in place for travel and other activities (transport, culture, restaurants, tourism etc.). As a result, household savings increased considerably, reaching 21.4% of disposable income in 2020, compared to 15.1% the year before.