In 2023-24, a person in urban India spent ₹6,996 a month, and in rural India ₹4,122.
Between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 surveys, spending per person rose 9.2% in rural India and 8.3% in urban India. Consumer prices over the same months rose 5.1%, so rural spending was up 3.9% after prices and urban spending up 3.1%.
- Urban India
- Rural India
View as a table
| Survey | Urban India | Rural India |
|---|---|---|
| 2009-10 survey | ₹1,984 | ₹1,054 |
| 2011-12 survey | ₹2,630 | ₹1,430 |
| 2022-23 survey | ₹6,459 | ₹3,773 |
| 2023-24 survey | ₹6,996 | ₹4,122 |
What went on food
Food took 47.0% of rural spending and 39.7% of urban spending in 2023-24, against 46.4% and 39.2% in 2022-23.
- Rural India
- Urban India
View as a table
| Survey | Rural India | Urban India |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 survey | 46.4% | 39.2% |
| 2023-24 survey | 47.0% | 39.7% |
The biggest categories
These are the ten broad categories with the largest shares when the rural and urban shares are added, for 2023-24. Each is a share of all spending per person in that sector.
| Category | Rural | Urban |
|---|---|---|
| Beverages, processed food, etc. | 9.8% | 11.1% |
| Conveyance | 7.6% | 8.5% |
| Milk and milk products | 8.4% | 7.2% |
| Durable goods | 6.5% | 6.9% |
| Fuel and light | 6.1% | 5.6% |
| Consumer services excluding conveyance | 5.3% | 5.7% |
| Clothing & bedding | 5.7% | 4.8% |
| Vegetables | 6.0% | 4.1% |
| Education | 3.2% | 6.0% |
| Cereal | 5.0% | 3.7% |
How unequal spending is
The Gini coefficient of spending per person, which is 0 if everyone spends the same and 1 if one person spends everything, was 0.237 in rural India and 0.284 in urban India in 2023-24, down from 0.266 and 0.314 in 2022-23.
- Urban India
- Rural India
View as a table
| Survey | Urban India | Rural India |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 survey | 0.314 | 0.266 |
| 2023-24 survey | 0.284 | 0.237 |
What this can and cannot tell you
MoSPI also counts the value of goods households received free or in kind, such as through welfare schemes. With that included, spending per person was ₹4,247 in rural India and ₹7,078 in urban India. The figures above leave that out, as MoSPI’s headline does.
There have been only two surveys on this basis, so there is no trend to read, only two points, and the dots are not joined. Each is a sample of households, so each figure carries sampling error. Spending is not income, and the survey records what households say they spent in the past 30 days, so it can miss large, rare purchases. Prices are those of the CPI for all of India (the 2012 base), averaged over each survey’s twelve months.
Where the numbers come from
Household Consumption Expenditure Survey, MoSPI
- Fetched automatically
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). Retrieved 29 September 2026. Source page.
- MoSPI National Sample Survey Office
- A sample survey with fieldwork from August to July; each value describes that survey year only.
- MoSPI publishes spending with and without imputing the value of items households received free or in kind (for example through welfare schemes). The two are separate series.
MoSPI release on PIB (HCES 2022-23), Table 1, 66th round row
- Entered from documents
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Retrieved 4 October 2026. Source page.
- MoSPI National Sample Survey Office, 66th round
- Average monthly per capita consumption expenditure at current prices, fieldwork July 2009 to June 2010.
- Typed in from the published table, not fetched.
- An earlier survey round: MoSPI tabulates it beside the HCES, but we have not checked that the survey methods match, so treat the step to 2022-23 with care.
HCES 2023-24 press note, Table 1, 68th round row
- Entered from documents
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Retrieved 4 October 2026. Source page.
- MoSPI National Sample Survey Office, 68th round
- Average monthly per capita consumption expenditure at current prices, fieldwork July 2011 to June 2012.
- Typed in from the published table, not fetched.
- An earlier survey round: MoSPI tabulates it beside the HCES, but we have not checked that the survey methods match, so treat the step to 2022-23 with care.
Consumer Price Index, base 2012, current series
- Fetched automatically
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). Retrieved 29 September 2026. Source page.
- MoSPI National Statistics Office (CPI)
- All-India index for rural and urban areas combined. This is not the CPI-IW that the project uses as its deflator.
- MoSPI marks 2 value(s), all for April and May 2020, with F* or F+ rather than F and does not define the flags in the file.