The divide between rich and poor is growing in cities

For this study, the National Institute of Statistics classified the inhabitants of around fifty towns according to their income category (from the richest 20% to the poorest 20%), then looked to see if the inhabitants of the same category lived in the same neighborhoods.

“Of the 50 cities studied between 2004 and 2019, the segregation index increases in more than 30 of them”, note the authors of the study, while it decreases in 15 other cities.

The details of the cities where this index, called "de Theil", is up or down, have not been disclosed.

But the study shows that Marseille, Lille, Rouen, Tours, Angers, Mulhouse, Nîmes, Le Havre, Avignon, Limoges and Poitiers are among the least mixed cities.

Conversely, it is in Grenoble, Nice, Saint-Etienne, Cannes, Lens, Annecy, Pau, Bayonne, Quimper, Lorient and Saint-Pierre de La Réunion that the two populations are the most mixed.

"These spatial disparities are not linked to the size or density of the population", notes INSEE, noting that we find large cities as well as small towns among the good and the bad students.

The higher the income inequalities are in a city, the greater the risk of segregation there, notes however the INSEE.

The populations most concentrated in the same neighborhoods are those located at the extremes of the income scale: the richest 20% and the poorest 20%.

Cities where segregation is strong have a higher rate of social housing, notes Insee, a fact which "could be partly explained by the concentration of social housing in large housing estates built in the 1960s" .

The mix has also declined in the priority neighborhoods, which increasingly concentrate the modest categories and are home to fewer and fewer wealthy families.