Rural Urban Income Continuum

Methodology

• The table on the left shows the different income levels in Rural India and Urban India.
• Households in Rural India are arranged in order of income and divided into 20% slabs representing equal numbers of households. These are Rural income quintiles which are labelled RQ in the table, RQ5 being the richest 20% within rural India and RQ1 being the poorest 20% within rural India. The same has been done for Urban India, labelled UQ or Urban income quintiles. UQ5 is the richest 20% of within urban India and UQ1 the poorest 20%.

Insights from this data include

1. The arrival of mass markets spanning urban and rural households with similar income, otherwise similar in aspiration and exposure thanks to the digital and television connected world we live in.
2. 24 million household size urban standalone urban rich market.
3. A mass-affluent market of about 70 million households spanning the top quintile of rural India and the second richest quintile of urban India.
4. Another mass market at the lower end of 60-80 million depending on the product or service.
5. A lower income market of 82 million.

While it is known that rural India contributes consumption over 55% of household consumption this points to mass markets that straddle both, urban and rural India.