A quarter of the French population, 15M people, go to school. The average length of schooling, starting with 5 year-olds, is 16.5 years. This places France around the OECD average, with the UK and the US around 15 years but the Nordic countries and Germany above 17 years.
France spends 6.2% of its GDP on its national education, which is again around the mean for the OECD countries and compares to 5.2% for the UK but 6.5% for the USA. While the total scholastic market is about the same size as that of the UK, there are significant differences from a business point of view.
In particular, students are typically expected to get all their own school supplies: from books and paper to paints and markers. Secondly, privately funded schools are rare. These two features mean that the school market is both more centralised and controlled than that of the UK. But also, that there can be greater choice of school suppliers.
Supported by the school market, France still has a large number of local stationary/office supply stores; although their number is declining as the giants of the sector take ever greater share. These giant retail chains came late to France, making their first cautious entries in the late 1980s. With the growth of “soho” (small office home office), they have now become an integral part of the French stationary scene.
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