Defining the middle classes, let alone “The fragile middle classes” Is not an easy task. Although there are diverse approaches possible, there is no generally accepted income nor holdings threshold enabling households to be identified as “modest”, ”well-off” or “middle-class”.
In the context of this study households have been defined by their income brackets (source: FILOCOM 2010) based on thresholds which open the right to social and affordable housing for middle-income households. This makes it possible to calculate that 24% of Parisian households can be deemed to be fragile middle-class (31% of Francilians). These households are present in all the districts of the capital, particularly in the northern, eastern and southern peripheral districts. They are made up of small households (55% people living alone), for the most part housed in the private housing stock.
Case-studies have been carried out to ascertain the possible existence of threshold effects linked to social benefits. These seem to show that the income hierarchy is not altered when the main social benefits are taken into consideration (RSA and housing benefit).