The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Government of India, released the data from the Household Consumption and Expenditure Survey, 2022. The purpose of this survey is to analyse the consumption and expenditure trends across the country to understand how people are spending their money. The survey also collects auxiliary information to understand how services are reaching the people.

The raw data from the survey has been converted to csv files and shared on OpenCity for seven major cities – Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. This explainer can help you understand how to look at this data.

The number of records and responses in Hyderabad is very less when compared to other cities. For e.g. while Bengaluru has more than 8000 households surveyed, and Kolkata more than 4000, there are only 216 households surveyed in Hyderabad. Given the lack of comparable data, for the purpose of this analysis, we will be comparing only the six cities – Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune.

It also needs to be noted that the Mumbai data reflects that of Mumbai Suburban district and not Mumbai City.

Comparison of the six cities

Given that the survey captures household expenditure data, the first question that comes to mind is, which is the most expensive city to live in India?

According to the survey, Bengaluru ranks highest among the six cities followed by Mumbai, costing more than Rs.18,000 per month. Chennai and Kolkata are the cheapest among the metros to live in, needing less than Rs.15,000 per month. Pune and Delhi aren’t too expensive either, costing less than Rs.16,000 per month.

A household’s monthly expense includes different important components – food, transport, health, education and housing expenses. Different cities rank differently in these components based on the level of support provided by their governments.

Food

Food is the most basic component of monthly expenses and it also tends to be the largest chunk of the expenses for most households. More than half the monthly expenses are spent on food on average.

Househods in Delhi and Mumbai spend the most on food, and in Chennai, the least, followed by Pune. Bengaluru and Kolkata aren’t too expensive either, ranking closer to the lower end than the higher end.

The largest expenditure on food is on non-cereal items which include fruits, vegetables, milk and milk products, protein – fish, eggs and meat, edible oil, spices and beverages which can take up more than 80% of the food expenses.

The expenses on cereals are similar in all the cities and the main difference is the spending on non-cereal nutrition. This suggests that where the spending is low, it is likely due to affordability, rather than easier access.

Housing

Along with food, housing is one of the basic needs of a family. The rent a household pays to have a roof over their heads can be a significant expense taking out a large chunk of a family’s budget – budget that could have been spent on other things like education or food.

Among the cities, Mumbai is the most expensive to rent in, followed by Bengaluru. Kolkata is the cheapest, costing only a fraction of the other cities.

Education

Education is one of the biggest expenses for households, especially as public education infrastructure in seeing disinvestment in many cities.

Bengaluru tops the list followed by Mumbai and Pune at a distance. Delhi is the cheapest when it comes to cost of education. Having a robust public school system helps bring down the cost of education for households while also providing quality education.

More than half the students in Delhi and Kolkata study in government schools, which explains the lower cost of education in these cities. Around 40% of the students in Chennai and Pune get educated in public schools. This proportion plummets to less than 20% in Bengaluru and Mumbai which explains the high cost of education in these cities. That Pune’s expenditure is closer to Mumbai seems to be due to the much higher cost of private education in Pune than in other cities.

Transport

Transport and mobility are important components of a household’s expenditure as livelihoods and income are dependent on them. It is important that transport is a much smaller part of a household’s expenditure so that a large share of the income is available for other expenditure.

Among the cities, it costs the highest to travel in Bengaluru than other cities, and lowest in Kolkata and Mumbai. Pune, Delhi and Chennai are only marginally less expensive than Bengaluru when it comes to travel. Stronger public transport infrastructure can help reduce the burden of transport on a household’s budget.

Medical – non-hospitalization

Medical expenses that do not require hospitalisation are in the form of doctor consultations, medicines and medical tests. These can be a significant burden on households especially when there are children and senior citizens in the family. Having a strong public healthcare network usually helps reduce this burden on households.

A household in Kolkata spends the most on health each month, even higher than the cost of transport. The rest of the cities, while not exactly cheap spend less on health than on transport. Delhi is the cheapest with a strong network of public health care in the form of Mohalla clinics, despite having to live with high air pollution.

Conclusions

Bengaluru comes out as the most expensive city to live in with high cost of rent, schooling and education, and transport. In other sectors like food and medical expenses, while it is not the most expensive, it still isn’t the cheapest in any sector. Mumbai suffers from the same issues, where households are burdened by high rent, cost of education, and medical expenditure.

In both these cities, a stronger investment in public education and health can help reduce the burden on households. Affordable housing is also an urgent issue to be addressed.

The cheaper cities like Chennai, Delhi and Kolkata all have strong public investment in at least some sectors like education, transport and health.

Food is the biggest expense for households and there is wide variation on spending on non-cereal items – fruits, vegetables and protein. Cities where the spending is low on this component probably end up spending it elsewhere, on education or medical expenses. In cities like Delhi with stronger public healthcare and education, more money ends up being spent on accessing better nutrition. We can see that one of the main benefits of public support for health, education and transport will be increased spending on nutrition leading to benefits in health and education for the population.