The rate of participation in organized colorectal cancer screening (DOCCR) remains insufficient in France, with strong disparities between departments. The aim of this work was to assess the relationship between the DOCCR response rates for the communes of the Bouches-du-Rhône (BdR) department and the boroughs of Marseille and their poverty levels. The DOCCR response rate was assessed for the 2017-2018 campaign. The Pearson coefficient was calculated to assess correlations with the average poverty rate per commune/borough, the density of general practitioners (GPs) and Potential Localized Accessibility (PLA) to GPs. Among the DOCCR guests, 29.7% (± 4.7) responded. The rate of respondents differed significantly between the communes/boroughs of the department (P < 0.001). The rate of respondents was inversely correlated with the rate of people living below the poverty line, both for the communes/boroughs of the department, with a high correlation (r = - 0.795, P < 0.001) and for the Marseille boroughs, with an even higher correlation (r = - 0.910, P < 0.001). It was inversely correlated with the density of GPs (r = - 0.430, P < 0.001). On the other hand, there was a weak positive correlation with Potential Localized Accessibility to GPs (r = 0.193, P < 0.001), as well as with the age of guests (r = 0.476, P < 0.001). The poverty rate in the BdR, which is higher than the national average, may partly explain the low rate of DOCCR respondents; other factors such as the density of GPs and their accessibility may play a role.