Insee Analyses · May 2022 · n° 73

A new measure of intergenerational income mobility in France

Intergenerational income mobility, which is an indicator of a society's ability to ensure equal opportunities, is measured for the first time by directly linking parents' incomes to those of their children at age 28. Children from wealthy families are three times more likely to be in the top 20% than those from modest families: inequalities are therefore partly reproduced from one generation to the next. However, for the same level of parental income, children's incomes vary greatly. In 2018, 12% of young people from the poorest 20% of families were among the wealthiest 20% of their age group.

All other things being equal, upward mobility is all the greater when the parents have high capital incomes, have higher education qualifications, are immigrants, have been geographically mobile, or when the children live in the Île-de-France region when they come of age. Conversely, being a woman, having lived in a single-parent family, having parents who are manual workers, or living in the Hauts-de-France region when they became adults are all factors that reduce the chances of moving up the income scale.