According to the latest survey by PRICE (People Research on India’s Consumer Economy), the Indian middle class is expected to grow from 14% in 2004-05 to as much as 46% in 2030 and 63% in 2047. This growth has been fuelled by economic growth and reforms.
MD and CEO of PRICE and author of the report titled: “The Rise of India's Middle Class”, Rajesh Shukla stated that “By 2047, if political and economic reforms have their desired effect, the India income pyramid will have a smallish layer at the bottom comprising the destitute and aspirer groups, a huge bulge of the middle class and a big creamy ‘rich’ layer on top.” In 2021, the middle class accounted for 31%, which is expected to expand sharply in the years ahead.
The report has broadly clubbed these groups into seven categories, ranging from the “destitutes” (those with an annual family income of under Rs 1,25,000 to the “super rich” (annual family income of over £200,000 in 2020-21) with the middle class (annual household income of between Rs 500,000 and Rs 30,00,000 in between. “The reason for clubbing households like this is that distinct patterns of consumption can be observed for these categories,” says Shukla.
In each of the eight income categories, the report gives a broad summary of the country's income demographics by states, urban and rural areas, and geographic clusters. It also discusses the expansion of India's urban centres and the country's wealthier strata, explaining why more and more affluent Indians are moving to these areas. It discusses the growth of 63 cities with populations of over one million people each, how the concentration of the wealthy has increased in the cities from 2015 to 2016, and the shift in demography income levels.
The report showed that Maharashtra is the richest state with 640,000 super-rich households earning over £200,000 per annum in 2021. Delhi was second with 181,000 households and Gujarat third with 141,000 households. Surat and Nagpur have the highest growth in the high-income segment.
