Indian Consumer Landscape – A statistical Look!

Per Capita income of average Indian has been on the rise thanks to stellar performance of India’s Economy. We are seeing people move from villages to towns and from towns to cities. In a short span of little over a decade, Urban pie has grown by nearly 10 percent.

Juxtconsult, India based research organization recently released a survey – Indian Consumer Landscape 2010 – which gives some interesting insights on Consumers in India. Here are some of the findings…

Indian Consumer Landscape

• India is currently 30 percent urbanised, while 70 percent of consumers are still in rural India.
• As far as consumption goes, 404 Million are either consuming or are aspiring consumers. 742 Million though are still under privileged.

• 80% urban India is low/lower middle class in income terms – below Rs. 12,500 p.m
• Only 15% is middle class, 5% upper class (64 million)
• Avg. monthly family income of urban Indians is Rs. 8,910 p.m
• 2/3rd urban Indians live in the tier 3 small towns (only 20% urban Indians live in the metros)
• Metros account for only 25% of the uppermost socio-economic class
• Only urban affluents (5%) lead the popularly perceived modern lifestyle

Household Asset Ownership

Indian Consumer Education & Skillsets

• Only 20% urban Indians have gone to college, only 3% have had their education completely in English
• Only 1 in 3 ‘employed’ in Metros works in the corporate world, an equally sizeable chunk are shop owners/traders/skilled workers
• Less than 3% urban Indians prefer to read in English

Indian Consumers Employment

• ‘Gen Now’ (roughly 30 to 45 yrs of age) is the biggest generation group in India (308 million individuals).
• ‘Gen Next’ (roughly 15 to 30 yrs of age) is a close second at 300 million individuals
• Only 16% ‘Gen Next’ are gainfully employed (2/3rd are students)
• ‘Gen Yest’ (roughly 45 to 60 yrs) are the most employed (60%) and have the best individual incomes (avg. of Rs. 4,985 or USD 110).
• ‘Gen Yest’ also have the highest penetration of credit cards, life insurance, and takes leisure holidays somewhat more frequently.
• There are only 40 million working women in India (9% of all women). 260 million are housewives.
• 2 out of 3 working women are also working moms.

Although, India is growing it is quite clear that we have a long way to go before we can even remotely become a developed nation. Close to 70 percent of our population is still under-privileged.

Like I always say when I post survey findings – Please take the numbers with a pinch of salt as these numbers are extrapolated from very small number of survey participants. More often that not, the findings do not reflect the ground realities.