In 2020, 180,000 people resided in the Hauts, or one in five inhabitants according to a study carried out in partnership by INSEE and the Réunion Region.
Between 2010 and 2020, the population of Hauts has increased a little more in the rest of the department, especially in the West and the South, which now welcome three out of four inhabitants of Hauts. More than nine out of ten Hauts residents live in a house, seven out of ten households own their home. Monetary poverty is more prevalent there than elsewhere : it concerns 40% of inhabitants. The population is also less qualified and less well integrated into the job market. However, the Hauts do not constitute a homogeneous territory. In those around Saint-Denis and Saint-Pierre and in La Plaine-des-Palmistes, the population is a little less disadvantaged and better integrated into employment. Conversely, other territories are poorer, with a population further from employment. On the one hand, these are changing territories located in the heights of the West and the South, marked by an expansion of collective housing. On the other hand, within circuses, in the heights of the West and the Wild South, there are more isolated highs, where owning your home remains the majority situation and where the population is stagnating.
