<Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> The Third Estate comprised all of those who were not members of the above and can be divided into two groups, urban and rural, together making up 98% of France's population . The urban included wage - labourers . The rural included free peasants (who owned their own land) who could be prosperous and villeins (serfs, or peasants working on a noble's land). The free peasants paid disproportionately high taxes compared to the other Estates and were unhappy because they wanted more rights . In addition, the First and Second Estates relied on the labour of the Third, which made the latter's unequal status all the more glaring . </P> <P> There were an estimated 27 million people in the Third Estate when the French Revolution started . </P> <P> They had the hard life of physical labour and food shortages . Most were born within this group and died as a part of it, too . It was extremely rare for people of this ascribed status to make it out into another estate . Those who did so managed as a result of either being recognized for their extraordinary bravery in a battle or entering religious life . A few commoners were able to marry into the second estate, but this was a rare occurrence . </P>

Facts about the first estate in the french revolution