''Les Trente Glorieuses'' (; 'The Thirty Glorious (Years)') was a thirty-year period of economic growth in France between 1945 and 1975, following the end of the Second World War. The name was first used by the French demographer

Jean Fourastié Jean Fourastié (; 15 April 190725 July 1990) was a French civil servant, economist, professor and public intellectual. He coined the expression '' Trente Glorieuses'' ("the glorious thirty ears) to describe the period of prosperity that France e ...

, who coined the term in 1979 with the publication of his book ''Les Trente Glorieuses, ou la révolution invisible de 1946 à 1975'' ('The Glorious Thirty, or the Invisible Revolution from 1946 to 1975'). The term is derived from '' Les Trois Glorieuses'' ('The Glorious Three'), the three days of revolution on 27–29 July 1830 in France. As early as 1944, after returning to a still partially occupied France as leader of the Free French,

Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free France, Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Re ...

introduced a

dirigiste Dirigisme or dirigism () is an economic doctrine in which the state plays a strong directive (policies) role, contrary to a merely regulatory or non-interventionist role, over a market economy. As an economic doctrine, dirigisme is the opposite ...

economic policy, which included substantial state-directed control over a capitalist economy that since 1940 had been controlled by German occupation. This was followed by thirty years of unprecedented growth, known as the ''Trente Glorieuses''. Over this thirty-year period, France's economy grew rapidly, like economies of other developed countries within the framework of the

Marshall Plan The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred $13.3 billion (equivalent to $ in ) in economic recovery pr ...

, such as

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. Yet, from 1946 to 1950, France, paralyzed by an obsolete economy and infrastructures, did not achieve real growth, and living conditions remained very difficult after the war and the penury which resulted from it. The cost of living rose. Rationing (present until 1947–1948) and the housing crisis accentuated the problems of a people still scarred by World War II. When most of Europe had been under German control, the distribution of goods was optimized, the best suited types of coal were used for iron and steel production, in steam locomotives, or for heating. With restored borders and tariffs, this interchange was limited, but with the 1951 introduction of the "Montanunion"

European Coal and Steel Community The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was a European organization created after World War II to integrate Europe's coal and steel industries into a single common market based on the principle of supranationalism which would be governe ...

trade according to supranational High Authority decisions, efficiency and prosperity rose. These decades of economic prosperity combined high productivity with high average wages and high consumption, and were also characterized by a highly developed system of social benefits. According to various studies, the real purchasing power of the average French worker's salary went up by 170% between 1950 and 1975, while overall private consumption increased by 174% in the period 1950–1974. The French

standard of living Standard of living is the level of income, comforts and services available to an individual, community or society. A contributing factor to an individual's quality of life, standard of living is generally concerned with objective metrics outsid ...

, which had been damaged by both

World War A world war is an international War, conflict that involves most or all of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World War I ...

s, became one of the world's highest. The population also became far more urbanized; many rural

départements In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...

experienced a population decline while the larger metropolitan areas grew considerably, especially that of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. Ownership of various household goods and amenities increased considerably, while the wages of the French working class rose significantly as the economy became more prosperous. As noted by the historians Jean Blondel and Donald Geoffrey Charlton in 1974,

If it is still the case that France lags in the number of its telephones, working-class housing has improved beyond recognition and the various 'gadgets' of the consumer society—from television to motor cars—are now purchased by the working class on an even more avid basis than in other Western European countries.

In his book ''

Capital in the Twenty-First Century ''Capital in the Twenty-First Century'' () is a book written by French economist Thomas Piketty. It focuses on economic inequality, wealth and income inequality in Europe and the United States since the 18th century. It was first published in Fren ...

'', French economist

Thomas Piketty Thomas Piketty (; born 7 May 1971) is a French economist who is a professor of economics at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, associate chair at the Paris School of Economics (PSE) and Centennial Professor of Economics ...

describes the ''Trente Glorieuses'' as an exceptional 'catch up' period following the two world wars. He cites statistics showing that normal growth in wealthy countries is about 1.5–2%, whereas in Europe growth dropped to 0.5% between 1913 and 1950, and then 'caught up' with a growth rate of 4% between 1950 and 1970, until settling back to 1.5–2% from 1970 onward.

See also

References

Further reading