Poorest 10% In US Outpace India’s Richest 10% On Daily Thresholds: World Bank

The poorest 10% of people in some of the world’s wealthiest countries have higher daily income or consumption levels than India’s richest 10 per cent, according to the World Bank’s 2026 Poverty and Inequality Platform.

The comparison highlights the gap in living standards between India and advanced economies, with the poorest 10% in the United States at around $25 a day, compared with approximately $10 a day for India’s richest 10 per cent.

The data puts the corresponding daily threshold for the poorest 10 per cent at around $31 in Canada and $28 in both Germany and Australia. In India, the threshold for the poorest 10 per cent is around $3 per person a day. These figures are adjusted for differences in purchasing power, allowing comparisons of living standards across countries.

India’s Richest 10% Still Trail Advanced Economies

The World Bank figures put the daily income or consumption threshold for India’s richest 10 per cent at approximately $10 per person. The comparable figure is around $173 in the United States, $129 in Canada and Australia, and $128 in Germany.

The comparison suggests that even people at the upper end of India’s distribution have substantially lower measured living standards than people in several high-income economies.

The figures need to be read with a methodological distinction in mind. For high-income economies, the data generally measures income after taxes and benefits, while for India and many other lower- and middle-income countries, it often uses household consumption expenditure. The World Bank harmonises national survey data to make international comparisons possible, but the measures are not identical.

The comparison also does not mean that every person in the poorest 10% of a wealthy country earns more than every person in India’s richest 10%. It compares thresholds in each country’s income or consumption distribution, rather than individual earnings.

World Bank Data Points To Need For Higher Incomes

The figures have renewed attention on the challenge of raising incomes and productivity across India’s population. Ahona Duttagupta, a programme associate at the Foundation for Economic Development, told NDTV that the comparison points to low incomes across the economy, rather than poverty alone, as a central development challenge.

The data suggests that improving the position of the poorest households is essential but may not, by itself, bring living standards close to those in advanced economies. Broader gains in productivity and earnings would be needed to raise consumption levels across income groups.

The World Bank’s Poverty and Inequality Platform draws on household surveys and other national data to track poverty and living standards across more than 170 economies. Its comparisons offer a broad picture of differences between countries, although variations in survey methods and the use of income versus consumption mean the figures should not be treated as perfectly equivalent measures.