Urban rich spend twice as much as rural rich: survey

There's not much difference between the spending patterns of India's urban and rural poor, but the divide becomes much starker between rich village-dwellers and their town counterparts, an official survey released on Friday shows.

The 66th survey of household consumption expenditure by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) reveals that the poorest 10 per cent of India's rural population had an average monthly per capita expenditure of Rs453.

The poorest 10 per cent of the urban population spent Rs599 per month on an average, which is similar when cost-of-living differences are factored in.

But the top 10 per cent of the urban population spent on an average 2.5 times more than their rural counterparts at Rs5,863 per month against Rs2,517 per month, the survey, carried out between July 2009 and June 2010, shows.

The expenditure difference is much starker between the rich and poor. In rural areas, the top 10 per cent of the population spent 5.6 times more than the poorest 10 per cent, while in urban areas, the divide was even wider.

The top 10 per cent spent on an average 9.8 times more than the poorest 10 per cent every month. The monthly expenditure per person was estimated at Rs1,053.64 in rural India and Rs1,984.46 in urban India.