Delhi is the largest market for high-end consumer durables and cars in India, despite Greater Mumbai having the highest prosperity among all markets.

The Indian capital, however, is second in terms of fast moving consumer goods, according to the latest survey by advertising agency R K Swamy BBDO called Guide to Urban Markets.

The comprehensive survey, which took over three years to complete and was conducted in 784 towns across 21 states and three Union Territories, has ranked cities and towns on the basis of several criteria like ownership of consumer durables, cars and landline phones. It covers 77.3 per cent of the urban population covering.

The survey says Greater Mumbai, followed by Delhi, Calcutta and Chennai are the most economically prosperous cities in India. Others among the top ten Indian cities, in terms of prosperity, are Hyderabad (5^th), Bangalore (6^th), Ahmedabad (7^th), Pune (8^th), Surat (9^th) and Nagpur (10^th).

The survey also threw up some startling findings. Vadodara offers the same potential as Ludhiana, just like Asansol in West Bengal is on par with Rajkot in Gujarat.

Guwahati, Jalandhar, Patiala, Thrissur, Latur and Bellary are all on an even keel as far as purchasing potential is concerned.

Again, while Greater Mumbai was ranked as the market with highest total prosperity (per capita prosperity multiplied by population), it lagged behind Delhi in terms of purchasing ability for high-end consumer durables like colour televisions, scooters, refrigerators and mopeds and other durables costing over Rs 6,000.

While Kolkata beats Chennai hands down in terms of total prosperity, the purchasing power of West Bengal's capital lags behind Chennai when high-end consumer durables are concerned.

Delhi is also the country's largest market for cars, followed by Greater Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, respectively.

Chandigarh, which holds 23rd position in terms of total prosperity, is the 15th largest market for consumer durables and 12th largest for cars, the survey found.

In terms of ownership of consumer durables as a percentage of total state prosperity, Assam is the surprise leader much ahead of traditional favourite Punjab, which is languishing at the fifth position.

Gujarat, Haryana and Kerala are placed at the second, third and fourth positions, respectively.

Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu follow in the sixth, seventh and eighth positions, respectively, as far as consumer durable ownership is concerned.

However, when one looks at car ownership, the trend is quite different with Kerala bagging the top slot followed by Gujarat, Assam and Tamil Nadu. Even as here also Punjab is in the fifth slot.

Haryana falls to the sixth place followed by Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh in terms of car ownership.