Soaring Prices, Stagnant Wages: Why Young People in France, Italy, Spain and Portugal Are Taking to the Streets

Student protests in France have entered their second month and escalated into a wave of demonstrations across Europe. What began in September with pupils protesting overcrowded classrooms and teacher shortages has broadened into wider anger over living costs and planned cuts to public services.

Demonstrators in Albania, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain have also taken to the streets over a lack of affordable housing, rising costs and deteriorating public services. Many young people say they no longer expect to have a better life than their parents.

The leaders facing this wave of discontent include French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro. Sanchez is on the left, Meloni on the right, while Macron and Montenegro are centrist-leaning conservatives. Despite their differing politics, all four are confronting growing unrest driven by surging living costs.

How much more expensive is life than in 2000?

According to Eurostat, the European Union's statistics agency, prices for everyday essentials such as food, energy, transport and utility bills have risen 59–78% since 2000 in France, Italy, Spain and Portugal. The agency's Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) is the EU's official measure of the cost of everyday goods and services.

Spain recorded the sharpest increase at 78%, followed by Portugal at 71%, Italy at 68% and France at 59%. That means goods and services worth 100 euros ($112) in 2000 now cost about 178 euros ($200) in Spain, 171 euros ($192) in Portugal, 168 euros ($188) in Italy and 159 euros ($178) in France.

Prices rose by an average of about 2% a year, but jumped in 2022 when annual inflation hit 8.7% in Italy, 8.3% in Spain, 8.1% in Portugal and 5.9% in France — the highest levels in all four countries since at least 2000.

The surge was driven mainly by energy costs after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. By October that year, eight months into the war, energy prices across the eurozone were nearly 42% higher than a year earlier, and food prices had also risen sharply, according to Eurostat.

Between 2021 and 2023, prices in the four countries rose 12–15%. Wages failed to keep pace, and because prices did not fall back once inflation cooled, many households are still feeling the squeeze.

What has happened to wages?

After adjusting for inflation, average pay for full-time work in Italy fell by nearly 5% between 2000 and 2025. Over the same period, real wages rose 7% in Spain, 11% in France and 20% in Portugal, according to OECD wage data adjusted using Eurostat's price index.

In Spain, much of the new employment is in tourism and services, often seasonal and low-paid, journalist Jaime Velazquez in Madrid told Al Jazeera's Inside Story programme.

Julius Fintelmann, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The European Correspondent, argues that ageing societies are narrowing opportunities for younger workers, and that the income gap between older and younger workers has widened for decades across high-income economies, undermining the promise that each generation will live better than the last.

How have housing costs changed?

Housing has become less affordable in all four countries since 2000, according to the OECD's house price-to-income ratio. The indicator tracks the relationship between house prices and incomes over time: when prices rise faster than incomes, the ratio climbs, signalling that a typical home has become less affordable.

The indicator does not show which households or regions are hardest hit, does not account for mortgage and borrowing costs, and does not reflect the quality of housing people are paying for.

Spain saw the biggest change. Its house price-to-income ratio is now 56% higher than in 2000, even after falling sharply in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

In France, the ratio is 39% higher than in 2000, though it has eased slightly since a peak in 2022.

Italy is the exception, with house prices broadly keeping pace with incomes, leaving the ratio just 5% above its 2000 level.

Portugal has seen the sharpest shift in recent years. The house price-to-income ratio fell steadily in the 15 years after 2000, meaning housing became more affordable. But since 2015 it has risen 67%.

How has state spending on education changed?

Education is at the heart of the unrest in France, where the protests began over overcrowded classrooms and teacher shortages. In Belgium and Albania, demonstrators have also protested rising education costs and access to university.

According to the latest Eurostat data, France's public spending on education equals 5.1% of gross domestic product (GDP), down from 5.6% in 2000. Italy spends 4.4% of GDP on education compared with 4% in 2024; Spain spent 4.1% in 2000 and the same in 2024; Portugal spent 4.8% in 2000 and 4.3% in 2024.