Insee Première · July 2023 · n° 1961

In 2021,  the earned incomes of self-employed persons rebounded

At the end of 2021, 3.9 million people were self-employed in France. Excluding the agricultural sector, the number of so-called "traditional" self-employed persons, which had been falling since 2014, rebounded slightly (+0.5% in 2021). The number of micro-entrepreneurs was still significantly increasing (+19% in 2021), accounting for 47% of all self-employed persons in 2021. The total number of self-employed persons increased by 1.5 million since the end of 2008, i.e. by +65%.

In 2020, penalized by the health crisis, the average income of self-employed persons fell. It rebounded in 2021 as the economy recovered: +9.6% in constant euros in one year for "traditional" self-employed persons (average monthly income of 4,030 euros) and +12.8% for micro-entrepreneurs (630 euros).These evolutions took into account measures to reduce social security contributions, without which they would have been more important, but it didn’t take into account exceptional aids paid under other support schemes which were not considered as earned income.