Consulate General of India
New York

CMIE survey of Indian households’ total annual income

The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy’s (CMIE’s) conducts a survey of Indian households under the series called “Consumer Pyramids” covering household income, expenditure, savings, asset-holding and debt status. CMIE’s data estimates household income directly and by including incomes of all household members and not just the head of households.
CMIE’s data for 2008-09 says household income the last financial year was Rs. 28 billion (US$ 602.15 million). The average per household income in India in 2008-09 was Rs. 1,40,000 (US$ 3010.75).

Some of CMIE’s findings are:

1. Break up of Indian household’s total household annual income:

• Food expenditure (excludes money spent on eating out): 25 per cent
• Power and fuel expenses: 7.6 per cent
• Expenditure for paying off Bank loans (under equated monthly installments): 1.4 per cent
• Health expenditure: 1.5 per cent
• Education expenditure: 3.21 per cent
• Expenses on buying newspapers: 0.22 per cent
  Recreation expenses: 0.64 per cent
• Expenses on alcohol: 0.6 per cent
• Expenses on eating out: 1.02 per cent
• Expenditure on employing domestic help: 0.57 per cent
• Transport expenses: 1.74 per cent

2. The richest 5 per cent of households account for 23.1 per cent of the total income and 50 per cent of households from the bottom account for 18.7 per cent of the total income. But 58.2 per cent of the total income is earned by 45 per cent of households.

3. The national household savings rate is at 40.41%. Delhi and Maharashtra are high savings states (47.72 per cent and 49.72 per cent savings rates respectively), while Bengal and Andhra Pradesh (27.45 % and 22.03%) are significantly low savings states.

4. Nearly 59 per cent of households in India are investing households

5. While over 26 per cent of households described themselves as borrower households, of these over 70 per cent borrowed from friends, relatives, moneylenders and just over 25 per cent from banks.

6. Home theatres are owned by only 0.02 per cent households. Nearly 43 per cent of Indian households own one or more kitchen appliances ranging from refrigerators to toasters. While 64.55 per cent of households own a TV, only 3.17 per cent own an LCD or plasma TV.