Nagaland Chief Secretary Sentiyanger Imchen released the ‘Report on Income Disparity in Nagaland’. Photo credit:
The bottom 50% of households in Nagaland receive only about 18% of total income, while the top 5% account for nearly 21% of gross income, a government report said.
According to the ‘Nagaland Income Disparity Report’ released by Chief Secretary Sentiyanger Imchen on Thursday (May 7, 2026), the top 5% of households in the state have an average monthly income of ₹71,028, while the bottom 50% of households earn an average monthly income of only ₹1,639.
The state recorded a Gini coefficient of 0.46, a measure commonly used for income inequality, where 0 represents perfect equality and 1 indicates extreme inequality.
The report was prepared under the Statistical Strengthening Support sub-programme of the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MoSPI) in collaboration with the University of Hyderabad and is based on a field survey conducted between October and December 2024.
The survey covered 4,396 households across Nagaland, including 1,315 households from 60 urban districts and 3,080 households from 140 villages.
The findings showed that the Gini coefficient for rural areas was 0.42, while urban areas recorded 0.44, indicating that income inequality in cities is marginally higher than in villages.
Among the districts, Longleng recorded the highest income inequality with a Gini coefficient of 0.492, while Phek recorded the lowest difference of 0.366.
In rural areas, Longleng again emerged as the district with the highest income inequality at 0.456, while Zunheboto recorded the lowest rural inequality at 0.330.
Also for urban areas, Longleng showed the highest inequality with a Gini coefficient of 0.509, while Zunheboto had the lowest urban income gap of 0.359.
Published – 08 May 2026 11:59 IST
