Kerala outperforms the U.S. in literacy, health, and poverty indices, Shashi Tharoor calls it the “real Kerala story.” Photo: X.
Kerala has outperformed the United States on several critical human development indicators, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor shared in a recent social media post, describing it as the “real Kerala story.” The Thiruvananthapuram parliamentarian shared a comparative chart highlighting how the southern Indian state has overtaken the world’s largest economy in multiple indices.
According to the data shared by Tharoor, Kerala leads the US in literacy rate, infant mortality, maternal mortality, and multidimensional poverty. Only two indicators—GDP and life expectancy—remain higher in the United States, though the gap in life expectancy is narrow.
Kerala records a literacy rate of 96.2 percent, far exceeding the US figure of 79 percent.
The state’s infant mortality rate stands at 5 per 1,000 live births, compared to 5.6 in the US (2022 data).
Kerala reports a maternal mortality rate of 18 per 100,000 live births, while the US rate is 22.3.
Kerala’s multidimensional poverty level is just 0.55 percent, sharply lower than the US figure of 5.68 percent (2024).
By contrast, the US maintains an edge in life expectancy, with an average of 79.6 years against Kerala’s 74 years, and a vastly larger GDP – 30.51 trillion dollars compared to Kerala’s 67.90 billion dollars.
Tharoor noted that he first drew parallels between Kerala and the United States nearly three decades ago.
“In my 1997 book India From Midnight to the Millennium, I made a comparison between the human development indicators of Kerala and the United States, pointing out that Kerala’s were on par with the most developed country on Earth, at one-twentieth the per capita income,” he recalled.
He added that the latest figures validate his earlier assessment. “Today, as the chart below indicates, Kerala has actually overtaken the US on several indices, including literacy rate, maternal and infant mortality, and incidence of poverty. For more, read this excellent article on ‘the real Kerala story’,” Tharoor wrote.
The statistics cited by Tharoor are from India’s NITI Aayog and other recent international datasets.
Zubair Amin is a Senior Journalist at NewsX with over seven years of experience in reporting and editorial work. He has written for leading national and international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Wire, Article 14, Mongabay, News9, among others. His primary focus is on international affairs, with a strong interest in US politics and policy. He also writes on West Asia, Indian polity, and constitutional issues. Zubair tweets at zubaiyr.amin
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