Top 10% rural households own 44% land in India: World Inequality Lab

A working paper by the World Inequality Lab highlights severe land inequality in rural India, with the top 10% of households owning 44% of total land, while nearly 46% of households remain landless.

The study, titled “Land inequality in India: Nature, history, and markets”, finds that large landholders dominate villages, with the largest landowner controlling about 12% of village land on average.

States like Bihar and Punjab have the highest share of villages where a single landlord owns more than half of the land.

In terms of concentration, Bihar and Kerala stand out, with very high ownership shares among the top 10%, 5%, and 1% of households; nationally, the top 5% own 32% and the top 1% own 18% of land.

Using the Gini coefficient, Kerala records the highest inequality (around 90), followed by Bihar, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal (around 80), while Karnataka and Rajasthan show relatively lower inequality (below 65).

The paper also notes that villages in former princely states tend to have lower land inequality compared to areas that were directly governed under British rule, indicating the long-term historical impact on land distribution patterns.

Source: IE