The numbers economists use to measure who's being left behind — and whether India's young population is an asset yet.
The Lorenz curve plots the cumulative share of income against the cumulative share of the population, showing how far actual income distribution deviates from perfect equality (a 45° line). The Gini coefficient quantifies this deviation as a single number between 0 (perfect equality) and 1 (perfect inequality) — it is simply the ratio of the area between the Lorenz curve and the equality line, to the total area under the equality line.
A demographic dividend is the economic growth potential that arises when the working-age population (15-64) is proportionally larger than the dependent population (children and the elderly) — meaning more workers to support fewer dependents. India is often described as being in the middle of its demographic dividend window, but realising this potential requires adequate education, skilling and job creation — without which a large working-age population becomes a liability rather than an asset.
The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), launched by the NSSO in 2017, is India's primary source for employment/unemployment data, replacing the earlier five-yearly Employment-Unemployment Surveys with more frequent (annual/quarterly) estimates. It measures unemployment using multiple approaches: the Usual Status (activity over the last 365 days), Current Weekly Status, and Current Daily Status — each capturing a different slice of India's complex, often seasonal and informal labour market.
Beyond the Gini coefficient, India also tracks the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) (see the Environment/Society sections for detail), which captures poverty via health, education and living-standard deprivations rather than income alone — offering a fuller picture than income-based poverty lines.
Download this topic's notes as a PDF, or search uploaded materials.
