Mumbai home to most of India’s centi-millionaire population, 3rd highest in the world

Poverty in India has gone down, but the state of income inequality remains dismal with the top 10 per cent holding on to 77 per cent of the country’s wealth. Although only 20 per cent are officially below the poverty line, about 95 per cent can still be considered low income and even poor. But there’s still reason for the top layer to celebrate since India has the third-largest number of centi-millionaires, or individuals with a wealth of more than $100 million.

Millionaires thrive amid inequality

The country where 70 crore people have personal wealth below $10,000, there are almost 25,500 centi-millionaires. While India is third after US and China when it comes to the number of centi-millionaires, it is second only to Vietnam in terms of the growth rate of such high net worth individuals. The country also has the third highest number of billionaires in the world, and is expected to double the number of millionaires from almost 8 lakh to 16 lakh by 2026.

Mumbai’s striking contrast

About 243 of India’s individuals worth more than $100 million live in Mumbai, where almost half of its 12 million residents live in slums. The top 1 per cent of India has control over one fifth of India’s wealth, and this inequality has also been flagged by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

When it comes to growth rate of centi-millionaires between 2022 and 2032, India is followed by Mauritius, New Zealand and Rwanda. India also created an estimated 70 millionaires every day between 2018 and 2022. The report was compiled by Henley & Partners, and places India among countries such as Japan and Germany.

Recently reports by IMF calling India better off than other countries, have also buoyed sentiments in India amid inflation and an imminent recession.