HCES 2011-12 & 2023-24

Macronutrient Intake
in India

How much energy, protein, and fat do Indian households consume — and where does it come from? This dashboard tracks mean macronutrient intake and the contribution of cereals, beverages, and processed foods across demographic groups and the expenditure distribution, using nationally representative household survey data.

3 Macronutrients
Calories · Protein · Fat
5 Metrics
Total intake & 4 source shares
7 Dimensions
Sector · State · Religion & more
Overview

What Does This Dashboard Measure?

The dashboard provides two complementary perspectives on macronutrient consumption. The total intake captures the mean daily amount of calories, protein, or fat consumed per adult female equivalent. The food-source shares decompose that total by its origins — revealing how much comes from cereals and millets, beverages, served processed food, and packaged processed food.

Together, these views illuminate both the level and composition of India's macronutrient intake — showing how diets shift from cereal-dominated to more diversified sources as incomes rise, and how the processed food share has evolved over the last decade.

Macronutrients

What Nutrients Are Tracked?

The dashboard covers three core macronutrients that together define the energy and composition profile of Indian diets:

Calories (kCal)
Protein (gm)
Fat (gm)
Metrics

How Is Intake Decomposed?

For each macronutrient, you can view the total intake or drill into the share contributed by four food-source categories:

Total Intake
kCal/day or gm/day per AFE
Share: Cereals & Millets
Traditional staple contribution
Share: Beverages
Tea, coffee, soft drinks, etc.
Share: Served Processed Food
Restaurant & street food
Share: Packaged Processed Food
Ready-made & packaged items
Features

What Can You Explore?

Temporal Comparison

Switch between HCES 2011-12 and 2023-24, or overlay both rounds to see how macronutrient intake and food-source composition have evolved over the decade.

Demographic Breakdowns

Disaggregate by sector (rural/urban), state, religion, social group, month, household head gender, and presence of children.

Expenditure Gradient

Visualise how intake varies across ten expenditure deciles — revealing Engel curve patterns and how macronutrient composition transforms with rising incomes.

Source Decomposition

Toggle between total intake and shares from cereals, beverages, served processed food, and packaged processed food — tracking the nutrition transition in real time.

Confidence Intervals & Downloads

All estimates include Bayesian 95% credible intervals. Export individual charts as PNG/SVG or download the full underlying dataset as CSV.

Methodology

How Is Macronutrient Intake Estimated?

The analysis is based on unit-level data from India's Household Consumer Expenditure Surveys (HCES) conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) — specifically the 68th round (2011-12) and the most recent 2023-24 round conducted by MoSPI.

For each household, daily per-capita macronutrient intake (calories in kCal, protein and fat in grams per Adult Female Equivalent) is computed from reported monthly food consumption quantities, mapped to nutritional values using ICMR-NIN conversion tables. The contribution of each food source — cereals & millets, beverages, served processed food, and packaged processed food — is expressed as a share of total intake.

All estimates are produced using a Bayesian multilevel framework, yielding posterior means with 95% credible intervals. Estimates are disaggregated by expenditure decile (using log MPCE in 2011-12 prices) and by seven demographic dimensions: sector, state, religion, social group, month, household head gender, and presence of children.

Read the full methodology document →

Data Sources & Attribution

Survey data: NSSO 68th Round HCES (2011-12) and MoSPI HCES (2023-24)

Research: Centre for research on the Economics of Climate, Food, Forestry and the Environment (CECFEE), ISI-Delhi Centre

Analysis: Dr Shamika Ravi (Member, EAC to PM) & Dr Mudit Kapoor (CECFEE, EPU, ISI-Delhi Center)

Ready to explore the data?

Launch Dashboard