Where France's degrees earn the least
Across French communes of at least 5,000 residents, tertiary-education share runs from 7.15% to 77.35%. The 77.35% peak sits in Paris's 5th arrondissement — where median income, at €34,650, trails the leafier suburbs that hold fewer degrees.
A diploma pays in France, but not evenly. Overlay the share of residents with tertiary education (INSEE RP 2022) on median disposable income (INSEE Filosofi) and the two rise together — up to a point. The country's most graduate places are the central arrondissements of Paris, dense with students, young professionals and renters. They are not where the money is. The best-paid addresses hold slightly fewer degrees and a great deal more capital.
the premium is real, at the median
Sorted into quartiles by graduate share, the income gradient is clean and monotonic. The most-graduate quarter of communes posts a median income of €24,770; the least-graduate quarter, €20,540. A degree-heavy population and a richer one usually travel together. The exception is the very top, where the ranking breaks.
where the diploma stops paying
Rank the largest communes by graduate share and the disconnect surfaces. Paris 5e leads the country at 77.35% tertiary, yet its €34,650 income sits below Neuilly-sur-Seine, whose 72.39% share buys €45,580. The pattern repeats down the list: central Paris supplies the qualifications, the western suburbs supply the earnings. What separates them is not education but who can afford to stay once the studying is done.
who has been moving in
The gap is a life-stage effect made visible. Central Paris draws the young and credentialled who have yet to earn, and prices out the graduates who do. The move to Neuilly, Saint-Cloud or Le Vésinet is the move from a rented studio to a household budget. For a buyer, the lesson is to read the two layers together: a high graduate share flags a place people want, not necessarily a place they are paid well to be.