The French and the ideal place to live
The French prefer to live in the countryside or in the provinces rather than in Paris or a large city.
A third would even prefer to live in a village, especially the over-65s and middle-income groups.
Medium-sized towns attract 31% of the population, in all social strata and in the same proportion.
This exclusive survey was conducted in cooperation with Opinea, our Internet access panel manager.
The distribution of respondents is representative of the population according to age, gender, region of residence, employment status and family structure.
The fieldwork took place between 8 and 12 July 2019.
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1004 responses were obtained according to these representativeness quotas, for an overall confidence interval of + or – 3.1%.
Our institute is completely independent of political parties, financial groups and trade unions, and this survey was not commissioned by any client or influential group.
The majority of French people want to live outside the big cities, contrary to the predictions of the generalized metropolization of the planet.
Preferred destination of an ideal habitat according to the current situation:
Go to a village
Go to a big city
10%
Go to a medium-sized city
31%
- Coming from the Paris basin 23%
- Coming from the regions 35%
- Under 35 years old 29%
- 66 years and more 36%
- Household income of less than 1800 euros / month 29%
- From 1800 to 3800 euros / month 36%
- More than 3800 euros / month 27%
- Paris basin 10%
- Regions 10%
- Under 35 years old 13%
- 66 years and more 7%
- Household income of less than 1800 euros / month 11%
- From 1800 to 3800 euros / month 9%
- More than 3800 euros / month 10%
- Paris basin 25%
- Regions 32%
- Under 35 years old 32%
- 66 years and more 31%
- Household income of less than 1800 euros / month 31%
- From 1800 to 3800 euros / month 31%
- More than 3800 euros / month 32%
Only one in ten French people dream of the Ile de France, especially the under-35s, but much less so the seniors.
It should also be noted that only 24% of Ile-de-France residents would like to live in Paris, with the majority preferring to move to a medium-sized city or even to a village or isolated area.
These facts show that the metropolisation desired by politicians does not correspond to the wishes of the majority of the population and that the revival of rural France may well come.