Chandigarh has recorded the highest average household consumption among Indian cities, according to a report titled "The Many Urban Indias" by PRICE (People Research on India’s Consumer Economy) and Tata Sons. The city shares the top spending rank with Thiruvananthapuram and Vadodara.
Income Leaders: Bengaluru Tops, Chandigarh Second
On the income parameter, Bengaluru leads the country with an average annual household income of nearly Rs 28 lakh. Chandigarh follows at the second position, with approximately Rs 26 lakh, placing it in the same bracket as Delhi. Bengaluru’s household income exceeds Chandigarh’s by close to Rs 2 lakh annually.
Despite the income gap, Chandigarh outranks Bengaluru on household consumption, securing the first position nationally on that metric. Bengaluru does not feature among the top three spending cities.
Urban Concentration of Income and Consumption
The report highlights that India’s top 100 cities house less than 20 per cent of the country’s population but generate over one-third of national income. The same set of cities accounts for 31 per cent of the total consumption nationally.
Six cities—Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, and Hyderabad—together account for 46 per cent of national consumption and nearly two-thirds of urban consumption. Delhi-NCR records the highest annual consumption among all cities, at approximately $126 billion, close to the combined consumption of Mumbai and Bengaluru at $134 billion. Delhi-NCR has around 75 lakh households, compared to Mumbai's 46 lakh.
Middle-Income Households Expand Significantly
The share of middle-income households nationally, defined as those earning Rs 6-36 lakh annually, has risen from 29 per cent a decade ago to 53 per cent currently. The report projects that this share will reach 60 per cent across the top 100 cities by 2030. Hyderabad recorded the highest share of middle-income households among the cities covered.
High-Income and Low-Income Trends
Households earning above Rs 36 lakh annually have risen from 3 per cent to 12 per cent of the total over the past decade, with the share projected to reach 20 per cent by 2030. Delhi, Mumbai, and Pune currently lead in this category. Conversely, households earning below Rs 1.5 lakh annually are projected to fall to just 0.3 per cent of the top 100 cities by 2030, indicating a significant reduction in extreme low-income households in urban areas.
