Who pays the most on a daily basis for transportation, rent, or food? Which territory suffers from a higher cost of living? While all French people are affected by inflation, these questions take on particular importance, as household budgets are constrained. However, an INSEE study published on Tuesday confirms it: the cost of living differs depending on the location.
Unsurprisingly, living in Paris and its surroundings is therefore particularly expensive. In March and April 2022, 200 investigators from the institute carried out 80,000 price readings in the field. Their conclusion is clear: in the Paris region, “prices are more expensive for almost all types of products”. Insee thus reveals that “consumer prices are 7% higher in the Paris region compared to those in the provinces (excluding Corsica)”.
In detail, rents are 40% higher in the Paris region, compared to the whole of metropolitan France, excluding Corsica. A figure that rises to 50% in the free sector and 20% in the social sector, before deduction of housing aid. Ile-de-France residents thus devote 9% of their annual budget to rents, compared to 6% in the regions. Similarly, home insurance is much more expensive than in the provinces, with a difference of the same order of magnitude, ie 40%. These high prices are also observed in housing-related services, such as household waste collection, which are more expensive in Île-de-France and 8% higher. However, “gas and electricity prices are rather similar between the Paris region and the province”, underlines Karine Dufour, head of the survey at INSEE.
Same observation for transport, whose prices are 1% higher in the Paris region, with strong disparities between the collective and the individual. The former are thus 14% more expensive, while the latter are 2% lower. This observation can be explained in particular by the lesser use of the car around the capital.
Particularly important in the household budget and marked by inflation in recent months, food is also more expensive for Ile-de-France residents, by 7% on average. Three-quarters “of the items tracked in the survey are more expensive in the Paris region than in the provinces”, such as “candy, coffee, camembert or soup”, specifies Karine Dufour.
Treatment is also more expensive in the Paris region, with “4% higher prices for health”, even 6% for “health services” with more frequent overruns in Île-de-France . However, the head of the survey mentions that “the prices are similar for the drugs”. It should be noted that Ile-de-France residents devote 14% of their budget to health expenditure, compared to 11% in the provinces.
If the inhabitants of the Paris region have to spend more, the Corsicans also know “prices generally higher by 7%” compared to metropolitan France (excluding rents). Food products are even 14% more expensive, which increases their budgets. The overseas departments are not spared by the high prices either. Life in these territories is particularly expensive: all sectors combined, the differential with mainland France is 16% for Guadeloupe, 14% in Martinique and Guyana, 9% in Reunion and 10% in Mayotte.
The only advantage of Île-de-France, a higher remuneration which makes it possible to cover (in part) the additional costs. “The average net hourly wage of an employee is 9% higher in the Paris region than in the provinces and that of a manager is 28%”, notes INSEE. The big losers therefore seem to be the French islands, which are paying the price for their distance from the mainland.
