• France's cost-of-living protests descended into violence and looting over the weekend.
• Hundreds of thousands demonstrated amid growing anger over the cost of living and public services.
• From soaring energy prices to declining incomes, five figures help explain the unrest.

France's growing anger over the cost of living erupted into scenes of looting and violence over the weekend.

While most of the hundreds of thousands of people who demonstrated across the country did so peacefully, clashes broke out between police and some protesters, with officers firing tear gas.

The unrest began as student protests over worsening school conditions, but has since grown into a broader movement fueled by frustration over the unaffordability of life in France.

The financial pressures facing French households are familiar to Americans: surging energy prices, wages struggling to keep pace with inflation, and the difficulty of making ends meet.

Here are four numbers that help explain the financial frustrations driving the protests.

1. The poverty rate is at a 30-year high

INSEE defines monetary poverty as having a standard of living below 60% of the national median, adjusted for household size. In 2024, that threshold was €1,337 a month for someone living alone.

France's monetary poverty rate stood at 15.4% in 2024, its highest level since annual records began in 1996, according to INSEE data published in July. The figures are the latest available because calculating poverty rates requires detailed tax and benefits records, which take time to compile and analyze.

That means around 9.8 million people in mainland France were living below the poverty line.

2. Energy prices are up more than 60% since 2015

It's not just Americans who are grappling with rising energy costs.

Energy prices in France increased by more than 60% between 2015 and the first half of 2026, according to INSEE. Electricity prices rose 43% over that period, while fuel prices were 31% higher at the end of 2025 than in 2015.

As with much of the world, the war in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz crisis sent fuel prices soaring. By April 2026, fuel prices in France were 30% higher than at the end of 2025, per the INSEE report.

Rising fuel costs were behind French protests in September, and members of that movement have joined students and trade unions in the riots over the past week.

3. Nearly 3 in 10 French people can't afford unexpected expenses

Data from Eurostat, the European Union's statistics agency, shows that 28.8% of people in France lived in households that couldn't afford an unexpected expense without borrowing or seeking financial help in 2025.

France isn't particularly unusual in the wider European context — the EU average was also around 29% — but the figures illustrate the financial insecurity facing almost a third of households as people protest over the cost of living.

4. More than 40% of French people experienced some difficulty making ends meet

More than four in 10 people in France (41.1%) lived in households that reported at least some difficulty making ends meet in 2025, according to Eurostat data.

Of those, 19.4% reported some difficulty, 13.7% reported difficulty, and 8% reported great difficulty, highlighting the widespread financial strain facing French households.

• The Louvre Museum said Monday it had closed its doors after student protests blocked its entrances.
• Riots and unrest have swept France in recent weeks, with violence erupting in Paris this weekend.
• The home of artworks like the "Mona Lisa" and the "Venus de Milo" gets around 9 million visitors a year.

The Louvre, the world's busiest and best-known museum, has shut its doors as disorder sweeps Paris.

The museum, home to some of the planet's most famous artworks, such as the "Mona Lisa" and the "Venus de Milo," said Monday that it had closed after protesters blocked its doors, extending the disruption beyond a weekend of demonstrations and riots across France.

"Dear visitors, due to student strikes the museum is currently closed. We apologize for the inconvenience," the Louvre said in a post on X. It gave no reopening time, and did not say whether it would reopen on Monday.

Students from the École du Louvre led the blockade in support of a nationwide high school protest movement and to denounce what they called police repression, AFP reported, citing museum management and unions.

The Louvre is visited by about 9 million people annually, making it by far the world's most visited museum.

Monday's shutdown bookends a difficult year for the museum. On this exact date last year, four thieves broke into the Apollo Gallery and stole eight pieces of France's crown jewels, valued at around $100 million.

The closure followed a weekend of protests over rising living costs and conditions in schools, with violence and looting in several French cities.

A Paris shopkeeper whose gold-buying store was broken into told Business Insider's Nathan Rennolds that thieves had "taken everything." He also found a Nicolas wine store on Sunday, its windows smashed and shelves picked clean.

Employees at a nearby boutique said they had hired extra security but closed early as the violence intensified.

At least 2,400 people were arrested after the weekend unrest, according to the Associated Press.

After an emergency meeting on Monday, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said he had instructed regional officials to impose limited, localized curfews.

In a separate statement, President Emmanuel Macron's office said the president had ordered a review of failures in security planning and intelligence gathering.