Insee Première · June 2022 · n° 1906

In 2019, 1.6 million people were living in communities: Ehpad, boarding schools, workers' hostels...

On 1 January 2019, 1.6 million people were living in a community, i.e. 2.4% of the French population. Half of them were women. The communities were of very different types, such as Ehpad (accommodation establishments for dependent elderly people), health or social establishments, boarding schools and university halls of residence, prisons or religious communities. The communities, and therefore their residents, were concentrated in the cities. More than a third of the people in the communities were aged 75 or over and the same number were aged between 14 and 24. Nine out of ten residents lived either in an Ehpad, another medium or long-term health and social care establishment, a boarding school or a university residence. Between 2009 and 2019, the number of people living in communities remained stable. The development of home care for the elderly reduced the impact of the ageing of the population on the number of residents in old people's homes.