India: urban and rural monthly consumption expenditure 2020

As of December 2020, around 50 percent of households in urban India spent no more than 2.4 thousand Indian rupees per month. Meanwhile, 37 percent of rural Indian households had at most 1.6 thousand rupees to live on. According to the source, the urban poverty line in India is set at a monthly spending of 2,400 Indian rupees, whereas the rural poverty line is 1,600 INR per month. In general, poverty in both urban and rural India in December 2020 had increased in comparison to December 2019, most likely exacerbated by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Distribution of households in urban and rural regions of India as of December 2019 and December 2020, by monthly consumption expenditure

Characteristic	1,000 rupees or below	1,600 rupees or below	2,000 rupees or below	2,400 rupees or below
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Release date

July 2021

More information

Region

India

Survey time period

2019 to 2020

Number of respondents

Urban India, December 2019: 278,759; December 2020: 331,809 Rural India, December 2019: 154,262; December 2020: 168,070

Supplementary notes

One Indian rupee (INR) equals 0.013 U.S. dollars and 0.011 euros (as of October 2021).

Sample sizes as below:
Urban India, December 2019: 278,759; December 2020: 331,809
Rural India, December 2019: 154,262; December 2020: 168,070

The source states: "Estimates for consumption are calculated by dividing household adjusted total expenditure by household size and weighted using member level country weights. Adjusted total expenditure is the sum total of all consumption goods and services purchased by the household during a month, adjusted using weekly records. Real values are adjusted for inflation using the MOSPI CPI (IW) for urban workers and CPI (AL) for rural workers (Base 2012=100). Headcount ratio is the percentage of individuals who are below the poverty line in urban and rural areas in each year. Poverty line is the inflation-adjusted poverty line in rural areas (Rs 972 in 2011-12 prices) and urban areas (Rs 1410 in 2011-12 prices), which are adjusted to 2012 prices with the RBI CPI(AL) and CPI(IW) for 2011/12-2012/13 respectively. All figures are in December 2019 values and observations with missing regions are dropped. Despite a much larger sample in urban areas, the CPHS also underestimates mean per capita consumption in urban areas, likely reflecting their inability to survey high-income urban households. From the draft National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) Report on Household Consumer Expenditure for 2017-18, the CPHS estimate of mean per capita consumption in urban areas was 0.8 of the NSSO level for 2017-18. For rural areas, the CPHS estimate is 1.1 of the NSSO level."

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