Unemployment linked to 14,000 deaths per year in France, Santé publique France study, Digi Mart USA News (France): A recent study published by Santé publique France, reported by France Inter, suggests that unemployment may be responsible for thousands of deaths each year in mainland France. The findings are based on telephone interviews with 14,471 working-age adults aged 18 to 64 living in mainland France.
The study found that people without jobs have poorer physical health and, especially, poorer mental health. Among the notable factors, the agency points to the stigmatization of the unemployed, which it describes as a central psychosocial mechanism with serious consequences.
Among the 2.6 million people without work in the country, Santé publique France attributes 14,000 deaths per year to unemployment.
During the interviews, researchers identified several contributing factors, in particular the loss of financial resources, identity and social status. According to the agency, these elements place the stigmatization of the unemployed at the heart of the psychosocial explanations.
The study also reports rates of depression. According to Sébastien Denis, environmental and occupational health director at Santé publique France, 17% of women had a major depressive episode in the past year, compared with 27.2% of women without employment.
Denis told France Inter that the longer a person remains unemployed, the more they lose contact with the productive sphere, with others and with the wider world.
The results echo a 2025 study by France Travail, also cited by France Inter. That earlier survey of about 2,100 people found that half of respondents had already been stigmatized for being without work, and 56% reported discrimination in housing, employment or health care, with just over a third saying they were not taken seriously.
Citing mainly American studies, Denis said finding work has positive effects and can protect against the decline of mental health. He also confirmed that the study does not mean unemployment is the sole cause of the deterioration in the mental health of those interviewed.
