Réunion

Economy & income

Currency

Euro (EUR, €); ~€0.88 per USD (1 EUR ≈ $1.14) (Jul 2026)

GDP per capita

• ~€27,300 (~$30,000) nominal (2024, INSEE — 64.1% of French national level)
• PPP: no separate IMF WEO entry (part of France)
• Eurostat ~70% of EU-27 average in PPS

Average salary

• ~€2,197 net/mo (~$2,500) (2024, INSEE/JDN)
• €2,260 net/mo EQTP (2023, INSEE)
• gross est. ~€2,820 (~$3,200)

Median salary

• ~€1,730 net/mo (~$1,970) — derived (INSEE: RE average is +27% above median, 2023-24)
• exact median not separately published

Minimum wage

• SMIC €1,867.02/mo gross, €1,477.93 net (~$1,685 net) (Jun 2026)
• identical to mainland France — national minimum wage applies

Cost of living

• Medium-High — island 'vie chère': INSEE found consumer prices ~9% above metropolitan France (2022), food notably higher
• rents below Paris
• Numbeo Saint-Denis data thin (37 entries / 5 contributors, Feb 2026; median after-tax salary ~$2,210)

Digital landscape

Population

• 0.88 million (883K, Oct 2025, DataReportal)
• INSEE ~885,700 (Jan 2025)

Internet users

75.6% (~668K) (Oct 2025)

Social media users

62.7% (~554K identities); 83.7% of adults 18+ (Oct 2025)

Mobile connections

1.03 million cellular connections = 117% of population (late 2025)

Devices

• desktop ~50.6% / mobile ~47.7% / tablet ~1.8% (StatCounter web traffic, Jun 2026)
• note >70% of online purchases initiated on smartphone

Ad spend

• n/a for Réunion specifically — DataReportal does not report ad spend for the territory
• folded into the French market (France total digital ad spend ~€10bn+ in 2024, SRI/Oliver Wyman)

Top social platforms

Facebook ~554K / 62.7%

Facebook Messenger ~430K / 48.7%

LinkedIn ~290K / 32.8%

Instagram ~281K / 31.8%

Reddit ~147K / 16.7%

X/Twitter ~82K / 9.3%

• Note: TikTok & Snapchat very popular — esp. under-30s

Messengers

• WhatsApp (dominant messenger, France-wide standard)
• Facebook Messenger (~430K reach, Oct 2025)
• Snapchat (very high among under-25s)
• Telegram (secondary)
• Instagram DM
• No mobile-money (M-Pesa/Orange Money) relevance — full Euro banking & card market, unlike typical Tier-3

Payments & behaviour

Payment methods

• Carte Bancaire (CB) / Visa / Mastercard — dominant (French card network + DSP2/3-D Secure)
• PayPal — common for national & international sites
• Apple Pay & Google Pay — growing on mobile (high smartphone use, ~41% iOS)
• BNPL 'paiement en 3x/4x' (Alma, Oney, PayPal Pay-in-X) — strong for high-value baskets
• SEPA transfer / direct debit — subscriptions & recurring
• Cash on delivery — minority, used only for first orders on unfamiliar local shops

E-wallets

• PayPal
• Apple Pay
• Google Pay
• Paylib (French banks)
• Lydia

Cash on delivery

• Low — less common than metropole
• used only for first orders on unfamiliar local sites
• No mobile-money (unlike typical Tier-3): full Euro banking & near-universal card penetration

E-commerce

• High/mature — French/EU e-commerce norms
• >70% of online purchases initiated on smartphone
• main friction is island logistics/shipping delays and import taxes

Notes

• Octroi de mer (dock dues) raises import & e-commerce prices
• DSP2 strong customer authentication mandatory
• SEPA/Euro zone

Audience & culture

Languages

• French (official, ~all)
• Réunion Creole (mother tongue / understood & spoken by ~90%+ of natives)

Religion

• Christian ~86% (predominantly Roman Catholic)
• Hindu ~12% (Tamil 'Malbar')
• Muslim ~7% (Sunni 'Zarabe')
• Buddhist/Chinese minority
• strong syncretism — ~11% of believers claim more than one faith (e.g. Hindu + Catholic) (INSEE / Obs. du religieux)

Median age

38.1 years (DataReportal, 2025)

Key seasons

• Winter/dry (May–Oct) — cooler, tourist high season, whale-watching Jul–Sep
• Summer/cyclone season (Nov–Apr) — hot/humid, cyclone risk
• 20 Désanm / Fèt Kaf (20 Dec) — abolition-of-slavery holiday, major cultural peak
• Dipavali / Diwali (Oct–Nov) — Tamil festival
• End-year holidays & soldes (winter sales Jan, summer sales Jun)

Cultural notes

• Highly multicultural, Creole-speaking, French consumer behaviour with strong island identity
• mobile-first social use
• local-pride content (food, séga/maloya, landscapes) performs well
• price-sensitivity around 'vie chère'

Where to find creators

• Instagram
• TikTok
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Snapchat
• StarNgage / Kolsquare rankings

Media landscape

Creators & public figures

Top creators

Celebrities

Dimitri Payet ~2.0M Instagram

Footballer (France international, ex-Marseille); born Saint-Pierre, Réunion

Guillaume Hoarau ~263K Instagram

Footballer & now singer/musician; born Saint-Louis, Réunion

Noémie Lenoir ~173K Instagram

International model & actress (Réunionese origin — mother from Réunion)

Pauline Hoarau ~105K Instagram

International fashion model (Elite; Ralph Lauren, H&M); born in Réunion

Danyèl Waro ~50K Facebook

Maloya music legend (real name Daniel Hoareau); symbol of Réunion Creole culture

S

Sébastien Folin ~30K Instagram

TV & radio host (grew up in Réunion); national French media figure

Affiliate & traffic

Hot verticals

• Sports betting (ANJ-licensed: Betclic, Winamax, ParionsSport/FDJ)
• Finance — consumer credit, insurance & bank-account comparison leads
• E-commerce/retail cashback & coupons
• Telecom / mobile & internet subscriptions
• Dating
• Nutra / beauty & wellness (within EU claim limits)
• Travel / tourism
• Sweepstakes / CPL

Active networks

• Kwanko (leading French network — CPA/CPL/CPC)
• Awin
• Affilae
• TradeDoubler
• CJ Affiliate
• Rakuten Advertising
• Effinity
• Betting: Betclic Partenaires, Winamax; global CPA (MyLead, Los Pollos) for grey verticals

Payouts

• EU/France-level payouts — effectively Tier-1, NOT typical Tier-3 'low': sports-betting CPA ~€25–60+ per FTD, finance/insurance leads ~€5–30 CPL, dating ~€1–5 CPL/DOI
• COD-nutra model largely n/a (card market)
• The project's Tier-3 tag understates RE's purchasing power

Competition

• Moderate — small absolute audience (~883K) but affluent EU consumers
• French-language creatives reuse across DOM-TOM, metropole & Francophone Indian Ocean (Mauritius/Mayotte), so RE is usually bought inside a broader France/FR buy

Seasonality

• Q4 (Nov–Dec holidays, 20 Désanm, Christmas) and winter/summer soldes peak retail
• betting peaks with the football calendar (Ligue 1, Champions League, Euro/World Cup)
• Dipavali (Oct–Nov)

Traffic sources

• Meta Ads (Facebook/Instagram)
• Google Ads (Search + YouTube)
• TikTok Ads
• Snapchat Ads
• Native (Taboola/Outbrain)
• Local influencer / UGC (KOLs)
• SEO
• Email / push

Good to know

Capital

Saint-Denis

Major cities

• Saint-Paul
• Saint-Pierre
• Le Tampon
• Saint-André
• Saint-Louis
• Le Port
• Saint-Benoît
• Saint-Joseph
• Saint-Leu

Time zones

UTC+4 (Indian/Reunion), no DST — 3h ahead of metropolitan France in winter, 2h in summer

Android vs iOS

59% 41%

Android 59% iOS 41%

Phone brands

• Apple (~40.9%)
• Samsung (~32.4%)
• Xiaomi (~11.1%)
• Google (~1.7%)
• Honor (~1.3%)

Top e-commerce

• Amazon.fr
• Shein
• Temu
• AliExpress
• Cdiscount
• Ravate (local retailer)
• Decathlon Réunion
• Leroy Merlin Réunion
• Veepee
• Fnac/Darty

Peak activity

Weekday evenings ~19:00–22:00 and lunch ~12:00–13:30 local (UTC+4); weekend late mornings; almost entirely mobile

Creative taboos

• Respect multi-faith/multi-ethnic diversity & religious syncretism
• slavery memory (20 Désanm)
• 'vie chère' resentment (recurrent cost-of-living protests)
• no alcohol/tobacco ads (Loi Évin)
• strict gambling-harm & no-minors rules
• recent chikungunya epidemic (2025, ~54,000 cases / 28 deaths) — handle health claims carefully
• cyclone-season safety

Also worth knowing

1. RE is a French DOM / EU outermost region — Euro, full French/EU law, Tier-1-style purchasing power & card/BNPL rails; the 'Tier-3' label undersells it — build compliance & creatives like France, not a developing market (no mobile-money/COD dominance).
2. Small absolute audience (~883K) → combine with metropole/DOM-TOM for scale; French + Creole creatives travel across the Francophone Indian Ocean.
3. High iOS share (~41%) and near-even desktop/mobile web traffic — budget for both; mandatory GDPR consent, #Publicité influencer disclosure and DSP2 checkout