HP Innovation Journal Issue 12: Summer 2019 | Page 32

“The newly wealthy Asian family is
becoming more important
to the world than the American
middle-class household.”
MICHAEL SHUMAN
U.S. News & World Report
by 2030. This doesn’t mean China will eclipse other
Asian players, however; together, with advancements in
countries of all sizes and stages, Asia is emerging as a
prosperous “supercontinent.”
CITIES OFFER A SHARPER LENS
ON INCOME GROWTH
Due to the sheer size of their populations, both China and
India can distort the picture when taking a country-level
view. Looking at city-level growth can offer surprising and
valuable insights. Rising incomes are especially notable in
India, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines. In Indone-
sia, for example, cities like Jakarta and Ujung Pandang
(also known as Makassar) show some of the highest pro-
jected increases in the world in average household income
over the next decade.
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HP Innovation Journal Issue 12
Growth is expected to come from cities of all sizes, as these
cities on average see their household incomes grow by 2X by
2030. To put the magnitude of this continuing growth in
perspective, roughly two out of every three households
across Asia will join the “haves” by 2035. This translates to
$15.6T of the $23.2T in income growth expected by 2035
globally from cities with more than one million people. 4
The fact that this growth is not confined exclusively to
a handful of megacities speaks to the breadth of this
increase. Cities of many sizes in Asia are growing—mega
(population greater than 10 million), large (5-10 million),
and medium (1-5 million). In fact, over the next 12 years,
disposable incomes are expected to double on average in
all cities over a million people in size.