Super Rich population doubled to 1.81 mn in 5 years through 2021.

The size of the Indian Middle Class, a major driver of economic growth, will jump from 31% of the population in 2020-21 to 61% in 2046-47, according to a new study. The Middle Class (`5-30 lakh annual income) will be nearly 1.02 billion in 2046-47, up from 715 million in 2030-31 and 432 million in 2020-21, as per the estimates based on PRICE’s ICE 360° pan India primary surveys.

It is also estimated that the population of the destitute (less than `1.25 lakh annual income) and aspirer groups (`1.25-5 lakh) will correspondingly decrease from almost 928 million in 2020-21 to 647 million by 2030-31 and further to 209 million by 2046-47.

The top income segment – the rich – will soar from 56 million to an estimated 169 million and 437 million.

While Middle Class has expanded quite rapidly, the most significant point is that there has been an even faster growth among various categories of the Rich. For instance, the number of Super Rich, earning more than `2 crore, has almost doubled to 1.81 million in five years through 2021.

By 2030-31, the number of Super Rich households is expected to increase even faster, to 9.1 million households, and by 2046-47 this is expected to go up to 32.7 million households.

An interesting aspect is that the growth of higher-income classes among rural households has been greater than urban households with the former growing by 14.2% and the latter by 10.6% between 2015-16 and 2020-21. Significantly, the urban poor have become poorer during this period.

Maharashtra is the richest state with 6,40,000 Super Rich households, followed by Delhi with 1,81,000, Gujarat (1,41,000), Tamil Nadu (1,37,000) and Punjab (1,01,000).

Less than 2% of the country’s Destitutes live in India’s top 63 million plus population cities versus 98% in the rest of India. And, despite their low population share, 55% of the country’s Super Rich, 44% of the Sheer Rich, 42% of Clear Rich, 37% of Near Rich and 27% of the Middle Class in live these cities.

The study covered over 40,000 households, both rural and urban from 25 states.

“It is necessary to understand why middle class is important because half of the income, expenditure and saving is with this section. Moreover, 55% of the incremental consumption by 2031 will be by the middle class,” said Rajesh Shukla, Managing Director and CEO of PRICE.

Speaking at the report launch event, India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said that the bulging middle class holds immense power to drive sustained economic, political and social growth.

https://www.financialexpress.com/economy/india-to-have-billion-plus-middle-class-by-2047-study/3157931/