The economic & social context

The economic situation of Reunion Island is far from brilliant. Contrasts and contradictions create a rather fraught social climate. As I am not a specialist in this particular field, I just give you some figures in a jumble.

There are 660,000 inhabitants on the island.

40% of the population is less than 20 years old.

40% of the working population is unemployed. Although the jobs creation rate is better than in the home country, the population increase is still too high to observe a decrease in unemployment.

About 50,000 people receive the RMI (Minimum Revenue for Integration : welfare payments)

35% of the workers are in the public services.

The SMIC (Guaranteed minimum wage) in Reunion is lower than in the home country. The SMIC progressive increase until reaching the national amount has been set up.

Reunionese civil servants' wages are 35% higher than French civil servants' ones in the home country.

Reunion has the second biggest total number of cars owned in a departement of France.

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