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The towns in France where people have the most (and least) money to spend

Evie Burrows-Taylor
Evie Burrows-Taylor - [email protected]
The towns in France where people have the most (and least) money to spend
Photo: AFP

A new report reveals that levels of disposable income in France are 40 percent higher than the European average. But it goes without saying that people in some areas are more flush than others. Here's a look at the towns in France where people have the most cash to flash.

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People in France has an average spending power of €20,038, according to a new report by by marketing research company Gfk.
 
This puts the country 13th on the European spending power ranking for 2018, with the average European having €14,292 left to spend each year after having paid their taxes.
 
The report also showed that the regions in France where residents have the highest levels of disposable income are the greater Paris region of Ile-de-France and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, close to the Swiss border in the centre and south east of the country. 
 
All top ten spots in France were taken by towns in these two regions.
 
At the top of the list for spending power in France (see table below) was Boulogne-Billancourt, a town in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, with inhabitants of this district having a per capita purchasing power of €30,310 -- more than twice the European average. 
 
Interestingly, Boulogne-Billancourt was also recently revealed to be one of the places in France where property prices were among the most expensive in France. 
 
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Table: GfK
 
Coming in second, with an average disposable income of €29,823 was Gex in the Ain department of eastern France which lies 5 km from the Swiss border and 16 km from Geneva. 
 
Taking third spot was Paris where according to the report residents have an average disposable income of €29,433. 
 
Following in fourth position was Saint-Julien-en-Genevois in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region (€28,254), the fifth spot was taken by Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the Yvelines department in the western suburb of Paris (€27,705), sixth was Nanterre (€26,892) in the Hauts-de-Seine department in the western suburbs of Paris and coming in seventh was another town in Yvelines, Rambouillet (€26,524). 
 
To make up the rest of the top ten were Versailles (€26,218), which is also located in Yvelines, Thonon-les-Bains (€26,184) in the Haute-Savoie department and Anthon (€25,395) in the southern suburbs of Paris. 
 
However naturally there were towns in France at the other end of the spectrum. 
 
In the map below, the places in France with the most spending power are coloured in dark red while the ones coloured in the deeper shade of green are the places with the least purchasing power.
 
Map: GfK
 
At the other end of the scale from the towns mentioned above are Vervins, a town in the Aisne department in Hauts-de-France in northern France, Lens in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France and Saint Denis in the northern suburbs of Paris. 
 
Saint Denis came bottom of the list for purchasing power, according to the report, with an average purchasing power per inhabitant of €14,696 or €5,300 less than the national average.
 
The Paris suburb is notorious for its high level of unemployment and poverty and was this week earmarked by one of the biggest US banks JP Morgan as one of the deprived areas in France that will benefit from a $30 million pot over five years in a bid to teach people job skills and expand small businesses.
 
And, which countries came ahead of France?
 
At 13th France was a fairly long way off claiming the top spot even though the average of French people spending power grew by €500 in one year which compared to an average rise of €355 across Europe.
 
The top spot went to Liechtenstein where people have an average spending power of a whopping €65,438 followed by Switzerland where folks have an average purchasing power of €40,456 (see table below for the top ten). 
 
 
Germany came in eighth (€22,949) while the United Kingdom, which came 11th with an average spending power of €20,572, was pushed out of the top ten by Finland this year. 
 
A total of 17 countries considered by the study have above-average per capita purchasing power while 25 countries fell below the European average.

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Anonymous 2018/12/04 19:03
The population statistics came from the Gfk report not from The Local. Perhaps someone should tell them?
Anonymous 2018/11/07 21:25
It would be nice when you publish an article to be able to click on maps, graphs, etc. and be able to enlarge them...
Anonymous 2018/11/07 21:09
I say, steady on!!! Your population statistics are completely haywire! Boulogne Billancourt where I have lived now for over 50 years has a population of 117,000 and not the +300,000 you give. A quick check has shown that, apart from Paris, most of the other population statistics are also grossly over the mark. Sorry to be a stickler.

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