Opinion
Demographic delusion: Why do almost all of us identify as middle-class?
Summary
- About 88% of India’s urban netizens claim middle-class status. Across income slabs, even at the upper end, we mostly think we’re middlers. Does this reflect sketchy awareness of relative incomes? Modesty? Or is it about social mobility and what we invest in moving up?
The middle-class of a country often has a starring role in its economy as much as what we call the ‘public sphere.’ But who qualifies as a member can vary by how we define this class. Should we go by how people view their own status?
According to the latest YouGov-Mint-Centre for Policy Research Millennial Survey, as reported in ‘Plain Facts,’ 88% of urban Indian netizens identify themselves as middle-class.
This cuts across income levels: among respondents who also disclosed their earnings, 90% earning under ₹50,000 monthly slot themselves in this bracket, as do 57% of those who earn above ₹4 lakh every month.
Overall, only 7% consider themselves rich and 5% poor. This nearly universal claim to middle-class status sits awkwardly with statistical readings.
Also read: India’s middle-class riddle: How much do you need to be called rich?
People Research on India’s Consumer Economy, for example, lists households with an annual income of ₹5 lakh to ₹30 lakh (at 2020-21 prices) as middle-class; its survey for 2022-23 found that this class accounts for 39% of the country’s population, but punches above its weight with 49% of household income, 47% of spending and 49% of savings.
While online folks in our cities may have a middle-class skew, it’s clear from the Millennial Survey that more people see themselves in this class than a statistical lens would warrant—most remarkably at the upper end. How come?
One answer is that people are scarcely aware of India’s big picture. Since ‘middle’ is a relative term, the relatively well-off may underestimate where they are placed. Among urban netizens earning more than ₹4 lakh per month, only 42% consider themselves rich, while 1% even claim they’re poor (and the rest middle-class).
Likewise, in lower slabs, few individuals may be in a position to guess where they’d be slotted by a slice-up that uses monthly inflows as a criterion to classify us. As for what level of income would make people rate themselves as ‘rich,’ which was probed by the Millennial Survey via a separate query, the median is a monthly ₹90,000 per person.
Among those self-classified as rich, ₹1.47 lakh per head is the mid-point that splits this lot into upper and lower halves. As it turns out, many people who call themselves middle-class are rich by their own yardstick.
Could it be a leftover from our pre-millennial past, when being rich wasn’t glorious? An act of modesty? What explains this tendency to identify as middle-class? A lens of sociology may help.
Also read: With incentives and deductions, middle-income share in India’s tax kitty shrinks
As a slice of society, it is characterized not just by income, but also by higher education, better-paid ‘desk’ jobs, cushy lifestyles, media exposure, retirement nest eggs, and, crucially, upward mobility over a lifespan.
Effort invested in this last bit is a key marker, since the destitute may rate their chances of better lives too low, while the wealthy are often past the point of striving for it.
Such differences in motives and attitudes, partly shaped by money, may be explained by Maslow’s theory of needs, which slots them into five step-up levels.
The most basic are needs of survival, like air, water, food, shelter and sleep. Safety and security are next, followed by love and belonging, and then esteem needs like dignity and status. Atop them all, we have ‘self-actualization’ needs, broadly about making the most out of life.
Also read: Tax overload: India’s middle class is hurting because of inequitable taxation
It’s plausible that India’s income profile does not mirror what a wide social prism would classify as our middle-class. That’s why well-off Indians who are driven to ascend an escalator of earnings—and Maslowian needs—may be calling themselves middle-class without batting an eyelid.
