Household income doubles in 6 years, so does spending

The monthly household average income in Bangladesh more than doubled to Tk 32,422 last year from six years ago, data from the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) 2022 showed.

Similarly, the monthly expenditure of households rose almost at the same pace: it was Tk 31,500 last year, compared to Tk 15,715 in 2016, an increase of 100.44 percent.

The government's statistical agency published the final report of the survey on Thursday. The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) has completed the seventeenth round of the HIES from January to December 2022.

For the households in the rural areas, the monthly income rose 95.27 percent to Tk 26,163 in 2022 from Tk 13,398 in 2016. It went up to Tk 45,757 from Tk 22,600 for the households in urban areas.

HIES data showed that per capita income climbed more than 93 percent in six years to Tk 7,614.

According to the report, per capita monthly income stood at Tk 3,940 in 2016 and Tk 1,485 in 2005.

Although the income increased both in rural and urban areas, earners in villages were getting less than the national average while it was higher for urban dwellers. The pace of increase was also faster for the latter.

In villages, per capita income rose to Tk 6,091 in 2022, which was below the national average. It was up 86.78 percent than in 2016 when it stood at Tk 3,261.

The earnings stood at Tk 10,951 in cities and towns last year, an increase of 90.38 percent from Tk 5,752 in 2016.

The share of agriculture as a source of income for households at the national level increased to 16.6 percent in 2022 from 15.9 percent in 2016.

According to HIES data, the concentration of earnings in higher income groups is gradually increasing, pointing to the deepening disparity.

In 2022, the income Gini coefficient was 0.499 at the national level, 0.446 in rural areas and 0.539 in urban areas. It was 0.482 at the national level, 0.454 in rural areas, and 0.498 in urban areas in 2016.

The Gini index, or Gini coefficient, measures income distribution across a population. The coefficient ranges from 0 to 1, with 0 representing perfect equality and 1 representing perfect inequality.