Evolution of the number of protesters during May 1st in France 2002-2023| ��ƽ��

Evolution of the number of participants in demonstrations organized on May 1st in France from 2002 to 2023, according to police and union figures

Characteristic	According to the police	According to the unions
2002	1,300,000	-
2003	164,000	400,000
2004	102,000	200,000
2005	71,770	100,000
2006	50,000	100,000
2007	117,000	200,000
2008	119,600	200,000
2009	456,000	1,200,000
2010	195,000	350,000
2011	77,000	120,000
2012	316,000	750,000
2013	97,300	160,000
2014	99,000	210,000
2015	76,000	110,000
2016	84,000	-
2017	142,000	280,000
2018	143,500	210,000
2019	164,500	310,000
2020	-	-
2021	106,650	170,000
2022	116,500	210,000
2023	782,000	2,300,000

Download

Source

Show detailed source information?

Already a member?

Source

Release date

May 2023

More information

Region

France

Survey time period

2002 - 2023

Supplementary notes

There is no data for 2020 due to the lockdown related to the Covid-19 pandemic, which lasted from March 17 to May 11, 2020 (not inclusive), effectively eliminating the possibility of protesting.

Citation formats

The statistics represent the number of protesters during demonstrations organized on May 1st, International Workers' Rights Day.
A strong difference is immediately noticeable between the figures published by the police and those by the unions, with the former tending to decrease the numbers and the latter to increase them. Thus, in 2023, the unions reported more than 2.3 million protesters in France, while the police counted 782,000.
Four major moments stand out: on May 1, 2002, the unions were strongly mobilized against the election of Jean-Marie Le Pen, then the FN candidate, to the second round of the presidential election. In 2009, the mobilization was strong because the united union procession attracted many protesters. In 2012, the unions mobilized against the re-election of Nicolas Sarkozy, gathering between 750,000 and 316,000 protesters.
The year 2023 is finally the one that saw the largest number of protesters according to the union organizations. The large number of protesters is linked to the mobilization against the government's pension reform under Élisabeth Borne.