Data For India

If India’s population were divided up into 15-year age groups, Gen Z is today its largest cohort. But with population growth slowing and India ageing, Gen Z peaked much earlier than previous generations.

The term Gen Z is used for the cohort born between 1997 and 2012.

By the time the last Baby Boomers were born in 1964, they made up 42% of India’s population. Gen X made up the same share when the last Gen X-ers were born in 1980, while Millennials made up 40% in 1996.

But by the time the last Gen Z-ers were born in 2012, they made up just 32% of the population. Gen Z has not experienced the same demographic dominance as the generations before it. The share of Gen Z in the population is already declining and will make up just 27% of the population in 2026.

The pattern will continue with Gen Alpha, those born in 2013 and after. Even when Gen Alpha peaks in size in 2028, Gen Z will be larger in absolute numbers.

#GenZ #Youth #DemographicDividend #Population #India #DataForIndia

New Data Byte: Most Indians say they cannot verify if information online is reliable, by @nileena_suresh

As Indians increasingly encounter information online, verifying it is becoming increasingly challenging. Younger Indians are more likely to have the skills needed, but across all ages, these abilities are in short supply.

In 2023, the National Statistics Office's Comprehensive Annual Modular Survey (CAMS) asked respondents who could use a smartphone or computer about their Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills, including their ability to carry out different tasks to verify information they come across online. These included checking whether they knew how to verify whether information circulated on social media was authentic, the ability to determine when content was published and the ability to establish the authenticity of a web address.

These skills were most common among people in their 20s. Even in this age group, however, only about three in ten men and two in ten women who could use a smartphone or computer were able to demonstrate these skills. The share falls sharply with age, with women consistently less likely than men to have these skills. Across the population, only one in five Indians who can use a smartphone or computer were able to verify online information.

The ability to verify information is increasingly important as more people get news, information and services online. Limited digital skills can make people more vulnerable to online fraud and scams, and misinformation. Older people and women are less likely to have the skills to identify false or misleading information, making them particularly vulnerable.

#Tech #Online #Living Conditions #India #DataForIndia

One of the most effective ways to understand how Indians live is by looking at how much money they spend in a month, and on what.

An average Indian’s Monthly Per Capita Consumption Expenditure (MPCE) on everything except investments is a little under ₹5,000 or USD 60, according to the 2024 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey.

In the 1960s, 80% of the rural household budget and nearly 70% of the urban household budget were spent on food alone. These shares have seen a steep fall over the last few decades. Food now occupies less than half of this monthly expenditure, both in rural and urban India.

The decline in monthly spending on food mirrors global trends, in which growth in incomes and a move away from manual labour lead to a relatively lower share of the household budget being devoted to food.

Along with the change in relative spending on food, what Indian households spend their food budget on has also changed. The decline in monthly expenditure on food is driven by a big reduction in relative spending on cereals. On the other hand, processed foods, fruits, eggs, fish and meat have seen their share in food expenditure rise over the last few decades.

#ConsumptionExpenditure #HouseholdSpending #LivingStandards #India #DataForIndia

Salaried workers are a minority in India's workforce, making up only 23% of workers. In contrast, more than half of the global workforce is in salaried employment.

Labour statistics define salaried employment, or regular wage employment, as a working arrangement in which employees work in enterprises owned by others and are paid wages on a regular basis, generally by the same employer.

As economies grow, the workforce tends to shift from agriculture to manufacturing and services. Alongside this shift, the share of salaried workers typically rises. Almost all jobs in advanced economies such as the United States and Japan are salaried jobs.

However, the share of salaried workers in India's workforce has grown only modestly over time, with most workers still self-employed. Most of this increase took place between 2005 and 2018, but progress has been slow since.

Salaried jobs are also more common in richer states, such as Haryana, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.

Urban work in India is most likely to be in the form of a salaried job. A rural worker, on the other hand, is more likely to be a casual worker, unpaid helper, or self-employed person.

#Salary #Jobs #Work #India #DataForIndia

New Data Byte: Childcare and housework take women out of India's labour force, by @akwaghmare

Fewer women than men being in the labour force is a global phenomenon, but the gender gap is one of the highest in India. While 80% of men are part of the labour force, only 40% of women are in the labour force in the country.

Both men and women may enter, leave, and re-enter the labour force for a range of reasons. However, the circumstances that take men and women out of the labour force are very different.

India's national labour surveys ask people who are currently not working but have worked in the past the reason for dropping out of work. Most men between the ages of 20-49 years cite health as the reason, followed by lay-offs or contract termination.

Health reasons take some women out of work as well, but the numbers are much smaller, and restricted to older women. Women in their twenties, thirties and forties who have dropped out of the labour force largely cite household work and childcare as the reasons they left the workforce.

Childcare is a particularly important reason cited by young women, or those in their twenties. More than three in ten women between the ages of 20-29 years who were earlier working report childcare as the reason they do not work anymore.

As women grow older, household work and health become more prominent reasons to quit work. Across all age groups in the prime working ages, however, household work remains the leading reason women leave the labour force.

#Jobs #Women #Employment #Work #India #DataForIndia