50% of Indians Earn 15% of National Income: World Inequality Report

India Among World’s Most Unequal Countries in Income and Wealth Distribution

December 12, 2025

Half of India’s population earns just 15 percent of the country’s total income, according to new findings from the World Inequality Report 2026. The top 10 percent, by contrast, take home nearly 58 percent of all income.

The report, by the World Inequality Lab, places India among the most unequal countries globally, both in terms of income and wealth distribution. It states that the richest 10 percent of Indians control around 65 percent of the country’s total wealth, while the top 1 percent alone holds about 40 percent of all private wealth.

In 2024, the top 10 percent of India’s population took home 38.2 times more income than the bottom 50 percent did. That gap has barely changed over the past decade, showing how firmly income inequality has held.

This ratio places India alongside Latin America, southern Africa, and parts of the Middle East and North Africa as regions where internal inequality is most severe.

India’s average income per capita is 6,224 euros (roughly 658,000, or 6.58 lakh rupees) per year, or about 518 euros (54,000 rupees) a month in purchasing power parity terms, a method that adjusts for price differences across countries to reflect what people can actually buy with their income. The country’s average wealth per capita stands at €28,141 (nearly 300,000, or 3 lakh rupees). However, the gains have not been evenly distributed across income brackets, and the lower half of the population has seen relatively little change in its share of income over the last decade.

Gender disparities remain sharp. Female labour participation in India stands at just 15.7 percent, the report found, with no meaningful improvement since 2014. This indicates long-term stagnation in economic opportunities for women and persistent barriers to workforce entry.

India’s income inequality stands out even more when placed in a global context. Despite being part of the fast-growing South and Southeast Asia region, India continues to record some of the lowest average incomes in the world, alongside countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

India’s national income per capita remains far below the global average of €1,200 (127,000, or 1.27 lakh rupees).

South and Southeast Asia has seen strong growth in per capita income over the past two decades and is now the second-fastest-growing region in the world, after East Asia. Even so, the region’s average monthly income is €600 (about ₹63,000), which is only half the global average of €1,200 (₹1.27 lakh) and less than 40 percent of East Asia’s level.

In 1980, about 40 percent of India’s population was part of the global middle class, meaning they earned more than the world’s poorest but were not among the richest. By 2025, that number has fallen sharply. Nearly 90 percent of Indians were now in the poorest half of the global population by income. This loss of relative standing suggests a long-term decline in India’s global income rank, even as the economy has expanded overall.

While income is more fluid, the concentration of wealth, which means assets such as land, real estate and financial holdings, remains far more entrenched.

The richest 10 percent hold around 65 percent of the country’s total wealth, and the top 1 percent alone controls about 40 percent. This leaves India with very limited presence in the world’s top wealth brackets, and affects intergenerational mobility and long-term social inequality.

Over the past few decades, East Asian countries have moved steadily up the global wealth ladder, and today, a large share of their populations are counted among the world’s richest. They now stand alongside regions like Europe, North America and Oceania in terms of wealth concentration. India, in contrast, still has very few people in these top global income or wealth brackets.

Research cited in the report argues that taxing a small fraction of the very wealthy could fund major social and economic investments without affecting most of the population. These findings align with earlier work from the World Inequality Lab on redistributive policies and progressive taxation.

In some countries, the richest 10 percent earn more than 100 times what the poorest 50 percent do. India’s ratio is lower, at 38.2, but still ranks among the highest in the world. That figure has remained steady over the past decade, with no sign of narrowing.

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