The quiet surge of millionaire households
The Mercedes-Benz Hurun India Wealth Report 2025 reveals that India now has 8,71,700 millionaire households, up from 4,58,000 in 2021—a staggering 90% improve over 4 years. These households signify about 0.31% of all Indian households, a major soar from the sooner 0.17%.
In contrast to within the West, the place wealth accumulation is usually skewed in the direction of a small proportion of ultra-wealthy people, India is witnessing a broad-based rise in prosperity. In truth, in line with the identical report, solely about 5% of those millionaires are ultra-high web value people (UHNIs) with web worths exceeding $12 million. In essence, India is creating many extra crorepatis than billionaires, an indicator that affluence is diffusing extra evenly throughout revenue teams and areas.
This wealth surge isn't confined to metros. Based on the Hurun report, Maharashtra leads the nation with 1,78,600 millionaire households, with Mumbai alone contributing 1,42,000 of them. However the really revealing shift lies in the place the remainder of India stands. States like Delhi (79,800), Tamil Nadu (72,600), Karnataka (68,800), Gujarat (68,300) and Uttar Pradesh (57,700) are rising as important reservoirs of wealth.
Maybe extra vital is the rise of Tier II cities akin to Ahmedabad, Surat, Jaipur, Vadodara, Nagpur, Visakhapatnam and Lucknow, which now function among the many high 10 cities with the very best variety of millionaire households. Past these, “micro markets” akin to Morbi, Vapi, Panipat, Ludhiana, Tiruppur, Dehradun, Raipur, Rajkot, and Jamshedpur are rising as severe wealth hubs.
What's driving this grassroots wealth increase?
The explanations behind this speedy rise in non-metro affluence are each structural and cyclical. Financial decentralisation has performed a pivotal position. As industrial hubs broaden past state capitals, cities like Rajkot and Coimbatore have gotten nerve centres for particular industries akin to auto parts and engineering. The growth of logistics, warehousing and small-to-medium enterprises throughout non-metros is producing concentrated wealth in locations beforehand depending on agriculture or small-scale commerce.
Land monetisation has unleashed a wave of liquidity. In lots of small cities, households who owned land on the city fringes are seeing sudden positive aspects as land is acquired or offered to builders or industries or infrastructure tasks. That is changing illiquid wealth into money, which is then in search of funding avenues.
Worthwhile household companies in small cities have grown stronger. Many enterprise households from these cities now run extremely worthwhile regional operations in manufacturing, retail, exports or logistics. This homegrown wealth, historically reinvested in enterprise or saved in gold and property, is now spilling into the monetary ecosystem.Digital monetary inclusion has helped democratise entry to funding choices. Wealthtech platforms and mobile-based funding companies have dramatically decreased boundaries to entry. This has allowed even first-generation buyers in smaller cities to entry mutual funds, PMS, AIFs and worldwide portfolios. As reported by ET, wealthtech platforms like Dezerv and Centricity word that round 30% of their new shoppers now come from past main metro areas. Monetary schooling and outreach have additionally improved. The rise of YouTube finance influencers, regional seminars and language-localised apps has helped deliver investing literacy to beforehand untapped demographics.
Small cities uncover wealth administration
As wealth turns into extra liquid and complicated, the normal mannequin of managing cash by way of actual property, gold, or casual recommendation now not suffices. More and more, high-net-worth people in smaller cities are looking for skilled wealth administration companies.
ET has reported that a number of main wealth administration companies, together with Motilal Oswal Personal Wealth, 360 ONE Wealth (previously IIFL Wealth) and WhiteOak Capital, are increasing into cities like Amritsar, Jalandhar, Trichy and Guwahati. Companies that earlier centered solely on metro clientele at the moment are actively pursuing enterprise in smaller cities, pushed by the rising density of millionaire households.
A key driver of this development is the evolving shopper profile. In contrast to metro-based HNIs who are sometimes salaried professionals or tech entrepreneurs, the small-town millionaire is often a enterprise proprietor, dealer or landholder. Their wants are sometimes completely different. They worth belief and private relationships, search conservative however high-return funding methods and are cautious of jargon-heavy advisory fashions.
To bridge this hole, wealth administration companies are deploying a hybrid digital-plus-local mannequin. Platforms supply digital onboarding and portfolio entry however mix it with on-ground relationship managers and regional language assist. For instance, Dezerv and Centricity use a “hub and spoke” mannequin, sustaining centralised operations with spokes in cities to ship a human contact to high-touch advisory wants.
From mutual funds to options: Diversification positive aspects traction
The funding behaviour of small-town HNIs can also be evolving. The place earlier the first asset selections had been actual property, gold and glued deposits, in the present day's shoppers are actively looking for mutual funds, PMS (portfolio administration companies), AIFs (various funding funds), structured debt, worldwide equities and even crypto in some instances. ET has reported that many small-town HNIs now need “portfolio-level recommendation” and are more and more centered on tax effectivity, risk-adjusted returns and asset diversification.
One other telling indicator is the rising dimension of mutual fund property from non-metros. Based on AMFI information cited in an ET report, mutual fund property underneath administration (AUM) from B30 cities (past the highest 30 cities) are rising quick. The AUM progress in B30 cities in India has outpaced the expansion within the T30 cities prior to now 5 years, as per a latest report by Franklin Templeton India Mutual Fund. As per the business information collated by the fund home, the share of B15 cities have risen from 25% in March 2020 to 35% in March 2025. The share of B30 AUM in Business AUM elevated from 16% in Dec 2020 to 18% in Apr 2025. Telangana (33.05%) and Haryana (27.86%) had been among the many high 10 states to contribute to AAUM prior to now one yr. These numbers underline the monetary deepening in smaller cities.
Distributors and IFAs (impartial monetary advisors) from cities like Korba, Tiruppur and Dehradun at the moment are managing AUMs in extra of ₹500–700 crore. These advisors haven't simply distributed merchandise—they've constructed enduring monetary relationships with shoppers, serving to them evolve from single-product buyers to complete portfolio managers.
The highway forward
Regardless of the spectacular progress, the wealth administration journey in India's smaller cities continues to be in its early innings. Key challenges stay. The price of organising operations in Tier II and III markets will be excessive, particularly if the market doesn't yield speedy returns. Expertise availability is one other subject. Getting skilled wealth managers to relocate to smaller cities is troublesome. Furthermore, belief stays a hurdle, with many HNIs preferring to seek the advice of long-time CAs or native brokers earlier than partaking with giant companies.
Moreover, monetary consciousness continues to be uneven. Many buyers have restricted understanding of merchandise like AIFs or structured credit score, and wealth managers should spend time educating shoppers on ideas like drawdowns, threat or international asset allocation.
Nevertheless, the chance far outweighs the danger. As monetary literacy spreads, digital platforms enhance and wealth turns into intergenerational, the depth of companies demanded by small-town shoppers will develop. Already, main non-public banks and international wealth managers are making inroads into these areas, providing property planning, worldwide funding automobiles and legacy options.
India's wealth story is now not about Lutyens' Delhi or South Mumbai alone. From Panipat to Rajkot, Surat to Morbi, a quiet revolution is underway. Millionaires are being minted not in nook places of work however in store flooring, landholdings and sensible native companies. These new millionaires should not merely content material with storing wealth. They wish to develop it, diversify it and shield it.
As small-town India will get richer, the wealth administration business has begun penetrating the hinterland, not simply with merchandise, however with schooling, belief and localisation.
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