'Half of India has less than ₹3.5 lakh': Financial expert warns India’s next crisis is personal

Half of India doesn't even have ₹3.5 lakh to their name. And globally, 90% of people couldn’t survive the loss of a single paycheck. These are the stark realities laid bare by Chennai-based financial planner D Muthukrishnan, who warns of deepening inequality in a world increasingly shaped by AI, automation, and job fragility.

In a series of posts, Muthukrishnan blends hard data with sobering insight, pointing to a future where wealth concentration and technological disruption could leave billions more vulnerable—even in the world's richest nations.

“Even in Switzerland, the top 1% owns 43% of the country's wealth. The top 7% owns more than 70% of the country’s wealth. Inequality is everywhere,” Muthukrishnan wrote on X. Despite this, Switzerland remains the world’s wealthiest country by average wealth, with each adult holding an average of $685,000 (approx. ₹6 crore).

But the median wealth—often a more telling statistic—is far lower at $167,000 (₹1.4 crore), meaning half of Swiss citizens have less than that amount. Muthukrishnan puts this in global context: “The median wealth of the world is $8,654. Half of the world owns less than ₹7.5 lakh. Median wealth of India is roughly $4,000. Half of India owns less than ₹3.5 lakh.”

Referencing the UBS Global Wealth Report 2024, he underscores how global wealth distribution is far more skewed than most realize. While countries like the US and Switzerland boast high average wealth, their median numbers show wide gaps. The US, for example, ranks fourth in average wealth but slips to 14th in median wealth.

“There are rich countries, but very less rich people in the world. Only around 1% of the world adult population owns more than $1 million (₹8.6 crore),” he notes.

He also offers benchmarks for comparison: excluding primary residence, if your wealth is above ₹90 lakh, you’re richer than half of Singapore’s population; above ₹96 lakh, and you’re ahead of 50% of Americans.

“If this is the fate of rich countries, less said is better about India,” he adds. “Except maybe for the top 10% of the world population, 90% cannot survive even losing one single paycheck.”

With accelerating shifts in global labor trends, Muthukrishnan concludes: “With AI, automation and robots, the world is in for challenging times.”