The rise in prices in France does not only empty the purse of households. It also widens inequalities significantly, depending on lifestyles and consumption patterns. INSEE indicates, in the note on the economy published on March 15, that the difference in inflation between different categories of households reached in January 2023 – while the rise in prices over one year reached 6% – three percentage points. In April 2022, this gap between categories was only 1.5 points. When inflation was very low, between 2015 and 2021, it was almost non-existent: only 0.2 points.
This inequality in the face of inflation does not only reflect income inequalities. It also has to do with age, place of life – rural and urban are not housed in the same boat – and eating habits. « Energy, particularly housing energy and fuels, contributes significantly to inflation differentials between household categoriesexplains INSEE. But food contributes just as much. » Since September 2022, this has been the main driver of price increases in France, both due to the high level of food inflation (+13.4% over one year, at the start of 2023) and the significant weight of this item in the household budget (16% on average).
Inequality between generations
Age appears to be one of the main factors of disparity between households. According to INSEE’s calculations, all other things being equal (income, place of residence, etc.), those under 30 would experience lower inflation by more than 2 percentage points than those aged over 75. This inequality between generations is primarily explained by the energy expenditure of housing: this increases with age. On the one hand, because the older generations often live in larger accommodation, a family house or apartment, which is more expensive to heat, than their children or grandchildren. But the difference also comes from the energy used: the elderly are more often heated with gas or fuels such as fuel oil, the prices of which have increased more than those of electricity.
The other major factor of inequality is to be found in dietary habits. Food represents 21% of the budget of the over 60s, almost twice as much as for the under 30s, who devote only 11% of their budget to food. The former consume more products whose prices have risen sharply in recent months: meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, etc. More frugal, the latter are also more likely to turn to external catering services, whose prices have risen. paradoxically less increased over the recent period than raw food products.
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