How every ₹100 is spent by Indian households

Key Highlights

• The survey rounds for 2022-23 and 2023-24 represent the first comprehensive update to MPCE data in over a decade, offering valuable insights into India’s shifting consumption landscape.
• These findings are central to revising poverty estimates, informing social sector policy, and understanding the lived realities of India’s expanding middle-income population.
• This article examines long-term MPCE trends from 1999-2000 to 2023-24, with a focus on six key expenditure categories.
• In this analysis, MPCE is expressed as the proportional expenditure on an item for every ₹100 of total spending.
• Decline in MPCE share on food and beverages for both urban (from ₹48 to ₹39 per ₹100) and rural areas (from ₹59 to ₹47 per ₹100) confirms Engel’s Law, which states that as real income rises, the proportion of income spent on food declines, even if absolute expenditure increases.