Tracking The Growth of India'S Middle Class: Mckinsey Quarterly January 2007
Tracking The Growth of India'S Middle Class: Mckinsey Quarterly January 2007
Tracking The Growth of India'S Middle Class: Mckinsey Quarterly January 2007
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Over the next two decades, the country’s middle class will grow from
about 5 percent of the population to more than 40 percent and create the
world’s fifth-largest consumer market.
India’s rapid economic growth has set the stage for fundamental change
among the country’s consumers. The same energy that has lifted hundreds
of millions of Indians out of desperate poverty is creating a massive middle
class centered in the cities. A new study by the McKinsey Global Institute
(MGI) suggests that if India continues its recent growth, average household
incomes will triple over the next two decades and it will become the world’s
5th-largest consumer economy by 2025, up from 12th now.1 Along the way,
spending patterns will shift significantly as discretionary purchases capture
a majority of consumer spending. India’s potential should make it a
high priority for most consumer goods businesses, but to succeed in this
complex market they must overcome major challenges.
Private consumption has already played a much larger role in India’s growth
than it has in that of other developing countries. In 2005 private spending
reached about 17 trillion Indian rupees2 ($372 billion), accounting for more
than 60 percent of India’s GDP, so in this respect the country is closer
to developed economies such as Japan and the United States than are China
and other fast-growing emerging markets in Asia (Exhibit 1). Our study
Dinesh Khanna
1
The full report, The ‘Bird of Gold’: The Rise of India’s Consumer Market, is available free of charge online
at www.mckinsey.com/mgi.
2
We have converted Indian rupees to US dollars at the base year 2000 exchange rate of 45.7 rupees to the dollar.
Purchasing-power-parity figures were converted at the rate of 8.5 rupees to the dollar.
52 The McKinsey Quarterly 2007 Number 3
Article at a glance
shows that aggregate consumer
Over the next 20 years, India will likely grow to become
spending could more than
the world’s fifth-largest consumer economy. quadruple in coming years, reaching
A study by the McKinsey Global Institute suggests
70 trillion rupees by 2025. Higher
that if India can achieve 7.3 percent annual private incomes and, to a lesser
growth—a reasonable assumption if economic extent, population growth will
reforms continue—consumer spending will quadruple,
encourage this rise in consumption.
from about 17 trillion Indian rupees ($372 billion) in
2005 to 70 trillion rupees in 2025. The dramatic growth Changes in savings behavior will
in India’s middle class, from 50 million to 583 million play only a minor role.
people, will power this surge.
But neither incumbents nor attackers will have an easy time. Bureaucratic
hurdles and well-recognized infrastructure shortcomings will frustrate
many strategies. In addition, while aggregate spending will rise tremen-
dously, it will be spread across hundreds of millions of households, many
with very modest incomes (by the standards of developed countries) and
high sensitivity to price and value. Finally, in many consumer markets
both Indian and multinational companies already compete intensely for
customers. While the opportunities will be enormous, the challenges
will force companies to be more dynamic by adapting their products, ser-
vices, and business models to the rapidly changing needs and incomes
of Indian consumers.
We examined the way India’s consumer market will likely develop under a
set of reasonable economic assumptions (see sidebar, “About the research”).
In particular, our model assumes that real compound annual growth will
be 7.3 percent over the next two decades and that economic-reform efforts
will continue. If these conditions are met, the life of the average Indian
will change vastly by 2025.
Tracking the growth of India’s middle class 53
exhibit 1
% of GDP, 2005
12,456
100% ($ billion) = 2,216 4,553 801
Private
39
consumption
57 62 70
Government
consumption 14
18 12
Investment 44 16
23 28
20
Net trade 3 1 –2 –6
China Japan1 India
United
States
Contrary to popular perceptions, rural India has benefited from this growth:
extreme rural poverty has declined from 94 percent in 1985 to 61 per-
cent in 2005, and we project that it will drop to 26 percent by 2025. While
the progress has been substantial—even historic—significant challenges
remain. First, there are large regional disparities in growth and in the reduc-
tion of poverty: India’s southern and western states prosper, while the
northern and eastern states (with the exceptions of the capital region, Haryana,
Himachal Pradesh, and Punjab) lag behind. Second, while India has been
slowly urbanizing over the past two decades, it remains the least urbanized of
the emerging Asian economies. Today only 29 percent of Indians live in
cities, compared with 40 percent of the Chinese and 48 percent of Indonesians,
and we project that the level of urbanization will increase to only 37 per-
cent by 2025.3 Finally, while more Indians are completing secondary and higher
3
Methods of measurement differ across countries and may understate India’s urbanization rate, but the general
point remains valid.
Tracking the growth of India’s middle class 55
education, the educational system remains severely strained and the quality
of and opportunities for schooling vary widely.
In rural areas life may become less desperate thanks to continued growth and
to government investment in infrastructure and development. But it will likely
remain a struggle, particularly for subsistence farmers in the north and east
and for others with little education. For India’s urbanites, especially educated
ones, the future looks promising. Many of these households will make the
jump not only out of poverty but also into the new and aspiring middle class.
WebEx
Urban 2007growth will bring several important consequences. First, it will put
MGI India
tremendous consumers
pressure on the urban infrastructure, which is already heavily
Exhibit 2 of 5
overburdened. (Our projections assume that infrastructure investments will
Glance:
at least keep pacefurther
India will see with reduction in poverty
urban growth andthat
and a growing middlewith
problems class. transporta-
Exhibit
tion and title: Escaping
utilities poverty
won’t worsen to the point of hampering growth.) Also, in
exhibit 2
Escaping poverty
43
93
80 36 Aspirers
54
35
22 Deprived
1Annual income: globals = >1,ooo,ooo rupees; strivers = 500,000–1,000,000; seekers = 200,000–499,999; aspirers = 90,000–199,999;
deprived = <90,000; figures may not sum to 100%, because of rounding.
2Estimated.
345.7 rupees = $1 in real 2000 dollars or 8.5 rupees = $1 adjusted for purchasing power parity.
Along with the shift from rural to urban consumption, India will witness the
rapid growth of its middle class—households with disposable incomes from
200,000 to 1,000,000 rupees a year.5 That class now comprises about 50 mil-
lion people, roughly 5 percent of the population. By 2025 a continuing rise
in personal incomes will spur a tenfold increase, enlarging the middle class to
about 583 million people, or 41 percent of the population. In 20 years
the shape of the income pyramid will have become almost unrecognizable
(Exhibit 3).
WebEx 2007
MGI
TheIndia
Indianconsumers
middle class has already begun to evolve, and by 2025 it will
Exhibit
dominate5the cities. By then about three-quarters of India’s urbanites will be
3 of
Glance: A continuing
part of the middle rise class,
in incomes nationallywith
compared will spur
justa tenfold
more increase in the size of
than one-tenth India’s
today.
middle class.
Exhibit
The nexttitle:
4
six areThe expanding
Kolkata, Chennai,middle
Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, and Pune.
5
There is no standard definition of India’s middle class. In our study we adapted a methodology, from India’s
National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), defining the middle class as households with
a disposable income of 200,000 to 1,000,000 rupees ($4,380 to $21,890) a year in real 2000 terms. That seems
quite low in the context of a developed country, but because the cost of living is lower in India, this range of
income buys a recognizably middle-class lifestyle. In purchasing-power-parity terms, the range is comparable
to an income of $23,530 to $117,650 in a developed country such as the United States.
exhibit 3
1Annual income: globals = >1,ooo,ooo rupees; strivers = 500,000–1,000,000; seekers = 200,000–499,999; aspirers =
90,000–199,999; deprived = <90,000; 45.7 rupees = $1 in real 2000 dollars or 8.5 rupees = $1 adjusted for purchasing power
parity; 45.7 rupees = $1 in real 2000 dollars or 8.5 rupees = $1 adjusted for purchasing power parity.
Source: McKinsey Global Institute analysis
Glance: Income growth in India’s urban areas will lead to waves of dominant segments.
Exhibit title: Waves of change
exhibit 4
Waves of change
Middle class
60
Seekers
50
40
Strivers
30
20
Aspirers
10 Globals
Deprived
0
1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025
1Annual income: globals = >1,ooo,ooo rupees; strivers = 500,000–1,000,000; seekers = 200,000–499,999; aspirers =
90,000–199,999; deprived = <90,000.
Source: McKinsey Global Institute analysis
The expansion will come in two phases, with the lower middle class peaking
around 2020, just as the growth of the upper middle class accelerates
(Exhibit 4). About 400 million Indian city dwellers—a group nearly 100 mil-
lion people larger than the current population of the United States—will
belong to households with a comfortable standard of living. For many com-
panies, the sheer scale of this new urban middle class will ensure that it
receives significant attention.
6
See MGI ’s parallel study on China’s consumer market, From Made in China to Sold in China: The Rise
of the Chinese Urban Consumer, available free of charge online at www.mckinsey.com/mgi.
58 The McKinsey Quarterly 2007 Number 3
These “global” Indians live mostly in the eight largest cities, so they are very
accessible to large domestic and multinational companies. Further, they have
tastes similar to those of their counterparts in developed countries: brand name
goods, vacations abroad, the latest consumer electronics, and high-end cars.
Changes in consumption
As Indians continue to climb the economic ladder, the composition of their
spending will change considerably. In a pattern witnessed in many other
developing countries, discretionary expenditures, such as mobile phones and
personal-care products, will take up more room in the nation’s shopping
basket.
This shift from necessities, defined in our analysis as food and clothing,7 is
already under way—and taking place at lower income levels than we have
seen in other countries (Exhibit 5). We expect that discretionary spending in
India will rise from 52 percent of total private spending today to 70 percent
in 2025. South Korea went through a similar transformation in the 1980s,
when its per capita income levels were about twice those of India now.
Food (including beverages and tobacco) will post the sharpest decline in
relative consumption, even as overall spending in the category rises. The fall
in the share of food expenditures during our forecast period—to 25 per-
cent, from 42 percent—is linked closely to the growth of the middle class.
Despite this relative decline, food will remain the single largest category
of expenditure, and we expect that growth in consumption will accelerate to
4.5 percent annually, from 3 percent over the past 20 years.
That growth, however, will appear tepid compared with the rise of other
categories. In particular, spending on purchases that improve the economic
prospects and quality of life of a person or family—health, education,
transport, and communications—will soar and eventually command a greater
share of consumption than they do elsewhere. The inadequacy of India’s
public-health system, for example, means that private health care is a high
priority for many Indian families when their incomes grow. This impera-
tive will drive growth in private health care spending by almost 11 percent
a year, so that it will account for 13 percent of the purchases of Indian
households by 2025, a larger share than current levels in all of the countries
we examined8 except the United States.
7
Housing too could reasonably be considered a necessity, but we excluded it in our cross-country comparisons
because of significant variations in national housing market structures, regulations, and measurement
methodologies. By contrast, the consumption of food and apparel is fairly comparable across countries.
8
Brazil, China, Germany, South Korea, and the United States.
Exhibit 5 of 5
Glance: The focus of India’s household budgets will shift from basic necessities to discretionary items.
Exhibit title: Beyond necessities
Tracking the growth of India’s middle class 59
exhibit 5
Beyond necessities
Transportation, already the largest category of expense after food, will take
a bigger portion of household budgets in coming years, exceeding its share
in all of our benchmark countries. The highest growth will come from car
purchases. Categories such as clothing and household goods are expected
to post slower annual growth relative to overall consumption—6.4 percent
and 6.9 percent, respectively—and thus to lose share of wallet. Yet even
in these categories, growth rates will remain highly attractive as compared
with those in other markets around the world.
For attackers, the challenge will be to spot the gaps and opportunities that
arise as India’s income and class structure change; they might, for
example, ask themselves where small markets or limited competition, or
both, have served middle-class consumers poorly. Attackers could also
turn to other emerging economies to seek lessons on how tastes and needs
will likely evolve in India, perhaps looking in particular for categories
in which spending shifted from local products and brands to international
ones as aspirations rose. Attackers seeking to exploit these changes
should consider what new needs will be unique to Indian tastes and the
market as the middle class grows.
Tracking the growth of India’s middle class 61
The future we have described assumes that India will continue on its recent
path of strong growth. There are many reasons to believe that this
assumption is realistic, most notably the scope for improved productivity
in the economy. But India’s outlook depends strongly on continued long-
term economic reforms that are needed to address serious deficiencies in
the country’s infrastructure, modernize the financial system, and promote
investment in human capital through better education and health care.