Gross disposable income and purchasing power in 2023 National accounts - 2020 Base

Households' gross disposable income

Gross disposable income (B6g) is the income available for the households for consumption and saving, once social and fiscal contributions have been deducted from their primary income and some welfare benefits have been added. Gross disposable income comprises:

The four main taxes taken into consideration are: income tax, housing rates, the general social contribution (CSG) and the contribution to social debt reduction (CRDS). However, inheritance duties are considered to be capital transfers and are not included in this calculation.

Change in households' purchasing power

The change in the purchasing power of gross disposable income shows the change in gross disposable income in relation to that in the price of the final consumer expenditure of households. This macroeconomic measure may differ from the perception households have of the trend in their standard of living. Many factors are likely to explain such a gap, in particular population growth (birth dynamics, migration, increasing life expectancy).

To take account of demographic factors, gross disposable income can be taken in relation to the French population as a whole. The growth in purchasing power per head is therefore adjusted to take account of population growth. Gross disposable income can also be taken in relation to the number of households. Given that the increase in the number of households is faster than that in the population (due to ageing of the population and also the increasing tendency to live alone) growth in purchasing power per household is therefore reduced proportionally. Finally, in order to take account of changes in household composition and of the fact that household expenditure is not strictly proportional to the number of people in it, it is possible to think in terms of purchasing power per consumption unit.

The size of each household in number of consumption units is calculated as follows: the first adult counts for 1 consumption unit (CU), each additional person aged 14 or over counts for 0.5 CU and each child under the age of 14 counts for 0.3 CU. The purchasing power per consumption unit can therefore take account not only of the number of households, but also of changes in household structure as an average. It is therefore the most relevant indicator for measuring changes in the standard of living as an average of all households.

Households' "pre-engaged" final consumption expenditure, "arbitrable" disposable income and change in the "arbitrable" households' purchasing power

"Pre-engaged" final consumption expenditure is expenditure within the framework of contracts that are difficult to renegotiate in the short term.

It is defined as follows:

"Arbitrable" disposable income is defined as the disposable income once all the "pre-engaged" final consumption expenditure has been deducted.

Change in "arbitrable" purchasing power shows the ratio between change in "arbitrable" income and change in the price of non-pre-engaged final consumption expenditure. The change in household purchasing power is therefore approached on a narrower field, focusing on the room for manoeuvre that households consider they retain to make free choices as to their consumption and savings.

Households's saving ratios

Saving rate is the ratio between households' gross saving (B8g) and gross disposable income (B6g).

Financial saving rate is the ratio between households' financing capacity (B9NF) and gross disposable income (B6g).

Households (S14)

The households sector consists of individuals composing the whole resident population. They are mostly regrouped in "ordinary households" - within the meaning of population census - and include all the persons living in a same principal dwelling. Members of the same "ordinary household" share a dwelling, pool a part or the totality of their income and their assets, and consume collectively some goods and services. An "ordinary household" may include only one single person. In national accounts, the households sector also include persons living in institutions (retirement homes, college campus, students or workers residences, military barracks, boarding schools, prisons, etc.).

Individuals, or groups of individuals, belonging to households sector have for principal function to consume, but they may also produce goods or services. In their market producer function, and when they regularly produce for other people, they form the "unincorporated entreprises" (farmers, own-account workers, craftsmen, etc.). In particular cases, households produce goods or services for their own final use:

Moreover, households produce a market housing service (for-hire service) when they rent a dwelling to a third party.

Households' resources are mainly compensation of employees, property income (interests, dividends, land revenues,...), receipts coming from their market production and social benefits.

The balance of the generation of income account of individual entrepreneur is called "mixed income": this income is called "mixed" because it corresponds indistinctly to the compensation of the entrepreneur's work and to the compensation of his productive capital. In the same way, when households are producers of goods and services for their own final use (except housing service), they get a "mixed income" paying work and fixed capital. The balance of generation of income account of households producing an housing service is the gross operating surplus that corresponds to the single compensation of the fixed asset.

Households generation of income

Households generation of income is analysed in three steps: primary allocation of income, secondary distribution of income and redistribution of income in kind.

Households primary income

They include income directly related to the households' participation in the production process. The main part of households primary income consists of compensation of employees, which includes gross wages and salaries and employers' social contributions. To facilitate international comparisons of labor cost, are recorded in social contributions not only actual employers' contributions (payments to social security funds and to other social insurance schemes related to employment), but also "imputed" contributions (that are the counterpart of other social insurance benefits directly provided by employers to their salaried people, ex-salaried and other entitled). Are added to compensation of employees, households and individual entrepreneurs' mixed income and operating surplus of households producing housing service. The rents - free of charges - received by owners are considered as compensation of real estate productive capital of households and therefore recorded in operating surplus. To facilitate international comparisons and make homogeneous the valuation of standards of living between tenants and owners, the operating surplus also includes the imputed rents - free of charges - received by occupying owners, these imputed rents compensating the real estate capital of occupying owners. At least, households mixed income (except individual entrepreneurs) retrace income coming from agricultural activities and building for own final use. Households primary income also includes property income resulting from lending or renting of financial assets or land (interests, dividends, land revenues...).

Households secondary distribution of income account

This account shows how the primary income balance is modified by redistribution operations: current taxes on income and assets, social contributions and benefits (except social transfers in kind), other current transfers. Social contributions, that are part of compensation of employees, are recorded as uses in the households secondary distribution of income account, and as resources in the secondary distribution of income account of sectors that pay social contributions (mainly central government). The balance of the secondary distribution of income account is the disposable income.

Households redistribution of income in kind account

This account presents a wider measure of households' income, including social benefits in kind (medical reimboursements, etc.) and individualized collective services (education, health, etc.). This measure facilitate comparisons over time, and between countries, when the economic and social conditions are different. Social transfers in kind are recorded as uses in the redistribution of income in kind account of central government (they correspond to their individualized expenditures) or of non-profit institutions serving households. The balance of the distribution of income in kind account is the adjusted disposable income.

The concept of adjusted disposable income was introduced by ESA 1995. It plays, in the valuation of income, a symetric part of the one of actual consumption in the measure of final consumption. A social transfer in kind is a form of income that has its counterpart in the final consumption, without having any expenditure from the beneficiary household.

Households' saving

The share of households disposable income (or of the adjusted disposable income) that is not used as final consumption expenditure (or actual final consumption) is their saving. The difference between disposable income and adjusted disposable income, that corresponds to social transfers in kind, is also the one dividing the final consumption expenditure from the actual final consumption. Thus, there is only one single saving concept.

Saving rate

Saving rate is the ratio between households' saving and gross disposable income (non adjusted).

Financial saving rate

Financial saving rate is the ratio between households' lending capacity and gross disposable income (non adjusted).