Households earn Rs.37.7 trillion in 2011-12

1.27 million households earn more than a million rupees

Households in India earned a total income of Rs.37.7 trillion in 2011-12. That translates into a market of USD 786 billion among the households of India.

The total household income is almost equally divided between rural and urban households. Each earned Rs.18.9 trillion although rural households at about 174 million are more than twice the 81 million urban households as of 2011-12.

As a result, the average income of an urban household is much higher at Rs.233,830 compared to the rural household’s Rs.108,618. The overall average income per household was Rs.148,365.

The median income works out Rs.90,800. i.e., half the Indian households earned more than Rs.90,800 and the remaining half earned less than this value - which is just a shade less than USD 2,000. The bottom quartile works out Rs.59,600 and the upper quartile is Rs.154,400.

The top one per cent of households by income earned Rs.744,000 per household, or more and the top half a per cent of the households earned Rs.957,000 or more. Roughly this implies that there were about 1.27 million households that earned roughly, more than a million rupees each in 2011-12.

The top one per cent of urban India (roughly 800,000 households) earned Rs.1.2 million (translates into Rs.100,000 per month) pre household, or more in 2011-12. The top half per cent of urban India (roughly 400,000 households) earned Rs.1.44 million or more.

At the other end of the spectrum are the bottom one per cent of the households that earned Rs.21,000 or less during the year. The last half per cent earned a mere Rs.15,000 or less during the year. In rural India the bottom half per cent earned Rs.13,000 or less per household.

These estimates are derived from a primary survey of 151,983 households conducted in four rounds during each of the four quarters of the year. Each household was visited during each of these rounds to gain an estimate of their earnings during a quarter. The sum of the earnings in the four quarters provides the estimate of the earnings during the year.