Hundreds of thousands of people in France have taken to the streets in protest in recent weeks. The protesters have cited underfunded and overcrowded schools as a major reason, as the country also deals with a growing debt crisis.

This Pew Research Center analysis looks at how people in France view their country’s economic situation. It comes amid widespread protests in France.

Pew Research Center does research to help the public, media and decision-makers understand important topics. We have studied economic views in countries around the world for more than two decades.

We surveyed 1,006 people in France from Feb. 9 to April 17, 2026. The survey is representative of France’s adult population. Here are the survey questions used for this analysis along with responses, and the survey methodology.

In a spring 2026 Pew Research Center survey, 85% of French adults said their country’s economic situation is bad, including about four-in-ten who said it is very bad. Negative views of the economy were more widespread in France than in any of the other 17 high-income countries we surveyed this year.

The share of French adults who express a negative view of the national economy has grown since 2022. French adults rate the economy about as negatively this year as they did in summer 2020, a few months into the COVID-19 pandemic.

Across demographic groups, French adults are overwhelmingly negative about the country’s economy. Notably, the youngest French adults in our survey (those ages 18 to 34) and the oldest (those ages 50 and up) are about equally likely to say the economy is bad.

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