The Indian state of Kerala has surpassed the US in several key indicators of human development, Congress MP from the state, Shashi Tharoor said in a post sharing the shocking numbers. Calling it the ‘real Kerala story’, the Thiruvananthapuram MP stated that Kerala’s has beaten several developed economies on Earth on several indices.
He shared a chart with six indices comparing where Kerala and the US stand on them. And interestingly, Kerala has performed far better than America on four indices while one, it is quite close to where the US is.
Literacy rate, infant mortality rate, maternal mortality rate, and multidimensional poverty in Kerala show better figures than the US.
Tharoor’s viral post
In his post, Tharoor said he had in his book in 1997 had compared the human development indicators of Kerala and the United States, stating how the southern state performed better on multiple indicators. But data from the NITI Aayog, as shared by Tharoor, shows Kerala actually surpassed the US.
“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 on-twentieth the per capita income,” he said.
In my 1997 book “India From
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) September 19, 2025
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 on-twentieth the per capita income. Today, as… pic.twitter.com/5YiJIiW1s4
“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”,” he added in the post.
What does the data say?
The data shared by Tharoor shows that Kerala outperforms the US in literacy rate, which is 96.2% in the southern state and 79% in the US. Similarly, the infant mortality rate per 1000 live births in Kerala is 5 and in the US, it is 5.6 (as of 2022).
The maternal mortality rate per 1,00,000 live births is 18 in Kerala and 22.30 in the US. Kerala’s multi-dimensional poverty stands at 0.55 while on the same indicator, the US is at 5.68% (2024).
The US only outshines in GDP and life expectancy. However, the gap in the latter is not significant. In the US, the average life expectancy is 79.6 years while in Kerala, it is 74 years.
As far as GDP is concerned, the US being the most powerful country in the country and hence wields a strong economy of $30.51 trillion, whereas Kerala’s GDP stands at $67.90 billion.