How France works
On this site
Figures from official sources on where French public money comes from and goes, who pays it and who receives it, who owns the country's wealth, and what is known of the effect of public spending. Each number links to its source and to the calculation behind it.
What each tenth paid and received in 2023
In 2023, the latest year of Insee's distributional accounts, counted per person and per month, the poorest tenth received €1,730 in pensions, benefits and public services, and paid €380 in taxes and contributions. The richest tenth received €2,150 and paid €4,930.
Taxes on the top 0.04%, 2023, and top tax rates in 2016
Each of the 27,000 people with the highest living standard paid about €70,760 a month in 2023 on this site's extension of Insee's accounts along the top of their ranking, and up to €166,280 under other assumptions. Counting the corporate tax of the companies households control, the Institut des politiques publiques finds a tax rate of 46% at the entry to the top 0.1% and 26% for the 75 richest households, in 2016, before the 2018 tax reforms.
Calculated by this site. The very top
What people paid and received by age, 2023
With every levy and transfer of 2023 split by each person's own age, people aged 40 to 49 paid €1,290 a month more than they received, and people aged 80 and over received €2,940 a month more than they paid. The split follows published age profiles.
Calculated by this site. Who pays and who receives, by age
How wealth is spread, 2024
In 2024, the richest 10% of adults held 59.9% of net wealth, and the poorest half 4.8%. At the top of the distribution, 530 adults held 5.6%, €1.5bn each on average. About €300bn is passed on each year by inheritance and gifts; the duties on it raise €20.8bn, 6.9%.
Where taxes fell, 1995 and 2024
of taxes and contributions came from income from work in 2024, and in 1995. Employees' share of value added was in 1995 and in 2025.
Who lent to the State, 2023 to 2025
Of each year's net new public borrowing, lenders outside France took up 104.2% in 2023, 73.9% in 2024, 91.8% in 2025. The Banque de France's share was negative each year, as it let bonds mature, which the State repaid by borrowing from others. The Banque de France paid the State €0m for 2023. The Government forecasts public debt at 119.3% of GDP at the end of 2026, and interest on it at €79.2bn.
Calculated by this site. Who lends to the State
Public support to companies under each official count, 2023
Official counts for 2023 run from €82bn to €211bn. France has 465 tax expenditures, costing €89.4bn; 89.1% of that cost is in measures with no end date. According to the Cour des comptes, of the 35 evaluations the government scheduled for 2020–2023, 4 were carried out.
Which public money has a causal study, 2024
82.2% of public money in 2024 sits in broad lines with at least one causal study. Single measures with their own cost and a causal study hold 6%. On this site's own estimates, measured against each scheme's aims, the schemes evaluated here move firms' turnover and CO2, business research, pupils' results, and jobs in the small towns and industrial territories by amounts these estimates cannot tell from zero. The rural tax zone's communes fell against their matches, in population by −1.4%, as their unclassified neighbours did, and in private jobs by −7.4%; industrial jobs in the industrial territories fell by −6%; researchers rose with the research tax credit, by 9.4%.
Calculated by this site. What is known of its effect
Public spending in France and three other countries, 2024
In 2024, public spending was 57% of GDP in France, against 49.4% in Germany. Social protection, mainly pensions, accounts for the larger part of the difference.
France, 2025 and 2026
2025, provisional
GDP
on 2024, nominal
Public revenue
of GDP
Public spending
of GDP
Deficit
of GDP
Public debt
of GDP
Public means general government: the State, local authorities and social security, consolidated. 2025 figures are Eurostat's, provisional.
2026, as forecast by the Government
GDP
on 2025, nominal; in volume
Compulsory levies
of GDP
Public spending, tax credits excluded
of GDP
Deficit
of GDP
Public debt
of GDP
Forecasts of the Government's draft budget for 2027 (projet de loi de finances), September 2026, as reproduced in the opinion of the Haut Conseil des finances publiques of 25 September 2026. The Government counts spending without tax credits and revenue as taxes and social contributions only, so this row is not on the basis of the 2025 row. The Haut Conseil judges the forecast deficit for 2026 plausible, though significant uncertainties remain on spending and revenue, and the growth scenario for 2026 plausible; the Banque de France forecasts growth of and Insee . Interest on the debt would come to .
Where does public money come from and go, and who pays and who receives it?
Revenue and spending by purpose; what each group pays and receives, by living standard and by age; France beside Germany, the UK and the US.
Who carries the tax?
What taxes fall on, the share of wages in value added, and the tax rates of the richest households.
How much public money goes to companies, and what is known of its effect?
Public support to companies under each official count, the largest schemes and groups, and how long tax expenditures last.
Who owns what?
What France owns and owes, who holds it, what it earns and passes on, and the arithmetic of a levy.
Does it work?
For each line of public money, whether its effect has been measured, and this site's own evaluations.
Method and sources
Where the figures come from and how they were computed, with the files to download.