To what degree is membership in France’s socio-occupational elite inherited from parents?

The socio-occupational elite in France encompasses top-level executives and professionals, including employers with at least 50 employees; executive directors of major firms and important or highly specialized services; self-employed physicians, notaries, lawyers, and chartered accountants; full university professors; magistrates; senior administrative and technical civil servants, and others. It represents approximately 3% of the country’s working population. 

In 2021, over three-quarters (77%) of these top executives and professionals had a qualification corresponding to at least 5 years of higher education, and more than half (55%) hold a PhD or graduated from one of France’s grandes écoles elite training institutions. Half of the people in this category earn over 4,800€ a month (net median income, full time). Two in three (63%) are men. Twenty-three percent (23%) of top-level executives and professionals of both sexes had a mother or father also belonging to the socio-occupational elite (as against 5% on average). More generally, 65% of them had a mother or father in an elite or other higher-level occupation (as against 23% in the population at large). 

Source

Thomas Amossé and Milan Bouchet-Valat, 2024, “Top-level executives and professionals: a statistical definition of elite occupations”, Population (English edition) 79: 39-72

Online: March 2025