Income in India
The median income in India is about $4.92 a day per person (2021 PPP dollars) — richer than 31% of everyone alive. Half of India lives on less than that.
The world's own median person — about $7.73 a day — would stand in the top 14% of India.
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The curve
Daily income per person, log scale, PPP dollars — the same curve the machine walks you across.
What it takes to stand where
Take-home income per person, in today's INR, at each point on the curve of India (the machine's convention: household take-home divided by the people it supports).
| Richer than… | per year, per person | per day (PPP $) |
|---|---|---|
| 10% of India | ₹27,021 | $3.14 |
| 25% of India | ₹33,304 | $3.87 |
| 50% of India | ₹42,296 | $4.92 |
| 75% of India | ₹55,076 | $6.40 |
| 90% of India | ₹72,244 | $8.39 |
| 99% of India | ₹145,864 | $17 |
Rounded, never inflated: the machine floors "richer than" claims.
The four levels in India
How much of India and of the world lives on each of four income levels. The cuts are the World Bank's $3.00 (international poverty line) and $8.30 (upper-middle-income line), both 2021 PPP; the top cut, $33, is the machine's own, four times the $8.30 line. The objects are what an income on each level tends to buy across the world's surveys — not a description of any one country.
| Level | per day (PPP $) | What tends to come with it, worldwide | India | World |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | under $3.00 | a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot | 8% | 13% |
| Level 2 | $3.00–$8.30 | a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance | 82% | 39% |
| Level 3 | $8.30–$33 | a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account | 10% | 32% |
| Level 4 | $33+ | a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap | <1% | 15% |
- Level 1 · under $3.00 a dayIndia 8% · World 13%a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot
- Level 2 · $3.00–$8.30 a dayIndia 82% · World 39%a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance
- Level 3 · $8.30–$33 a dayIndia 10% · World 32%a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account
- Level 4 · $33+ a dayIndia <1% · World 15%a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap
About 82% of India lives on Level 2, between $3.00 and $8.30 a day per person; worldwide, about 39% of people do.
The line that moved
In India, 48% lived under the $3.00 line at the 1993 survey; 5.3% at the 2022 one — a fall of 42 points in 29 years.
Share of India under $3.00 a day (2021 prices) at each national survey, World Bank PIP via Our World in Data; the faint line is the world's.
Worldwide, the share under the World Bank's $3.00-a-day line fell from about 43% in 1990 to about 10% today (Our World in Data; the latest years are the Bank's nowcast). Where the lift came, it came the unglamorous way: wages, harvests, workshops.
Who earns what in India
8 portraits, not payroll data: each stands roughly where that kind of work typically earns on the curve of India.
| the lowest 10% | the earnings of an agricultural labourer — monsoon to monsoon |
|---|---|
| 10–25% | the earnings of a smallholder farmer — two acres, two seasons, and no margin for error |
| 25–45% | the earnings of an auto-rickshaw driver — who knows the city better than any map |
| 45–65% | the earnings of a kirana shopkeeper — the corner store that never closes |
| 65–82% | the earnings of a schoolteacher |
| 82–93% | the earnings of a bank officer — the queue for that exam was a million applicants long |
| 93–98% | the earnings of a software engineer in Bengaluru |
| the highest 2% | the earnings of a senior corporate manager — the campus has its own postcode |
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Where this comes from
The World Bank's Poverty and Inequality Platform percentile distribution for India (survey year 2023), in 2021 PPP dollars; incomes typed in today's money are deflated to 2021 prices with the national CPI and converted with the 2021 consumption-PPP factor. Snapshot fetched September 2026. Full methodology & honesty rules.
Neighbours on the curve
The countries whose median income sits nearest to India's — and a few far from it, for scale.