Consumption data lays bare India’s deep inequality
₹16,612 per head per month, which is 3.1 times what the median person spends, according to a Mint analysis of the 2022-23 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey. In rural areas, the top 10% spends ₹8,569, compared to a median of ₹3,268, a gap of 2.6 times. On the surface, both urban and rural inequalities have declined since the last available survey from 2011-12, with a sharper decline in urban areas.
However, the two surveys are not strictly comparable due to significant methodological changes, making it difficult to determine whether the progress is due to policy changes or improved data collection. Additionally, despite adjustments to better capture the consumption of the affluent, the survey might still underrepresent this group as their money is not solely directed towards consumption but also savings. The survey covered 155,014 rural households and 106,732 urban households across the country.
It’s clear that household consumption spending is deeply unequal—even more so in certain states and for certain groups. Take Kerala and Haryana, for instance, where the top 10% of the urban pyramid exceeds ₹20,000 in monthly spending, the highest among major states. In contrast, the bottom 10% in both states spends less than one-twelfth of that amount, the widest gap in India.
The report ranks the urban populations of these two states as the most unequal when measured by the Gini coefficient, a common metric for assessing inequality. Another measure of inequality, albeit a cruder one, is the gap between average spending (total spending divided by the number of people) and the spending of the median person (the person exactly in the middle). A larger gap indicates that the more affluent population is pulling the average
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