If you thought that the Tier One cities is where all the fun is, think again for Chandigarh city has overtaken the metros in terms of lifestyle, thanks to its status as the Indian city with the highest per capita income.

Data released by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics in the government shows that Chandigarh's per capita income for 2006-07 stood at Rs.99,262 rupees at current prices while at constant costs it was pegged at Rs.70,361. The next on the list is Goa with figures of Rs.82,903 and Rs.54,850 respectively.

A report in the Times of India quotes R S Bawa, professor of economics at the Guru Nanak Dev University to state that this trend can be attributed to the attraction it presents to executives as well as the retired employees from teh army and other government departments settling in this union territory.

The well-planned nature of the city and abundant infrastructure makes Chandigarh a haven for BPO units especially at the Rajiv Gandhi Technology Park. "The city is likely to maintain its lead with improved air connectivity and more industries," Bawa is quoted as saying by the newspaper.

While the bigger cities had statistically better numbers when it came to per capita income, these dropped significantly when dispersed across entire states. For example, the PCI of Bangalore city could be higher but when averaged out between the rural and urban areas, the figure drops.

On the other hand, the low paid strata of Chandigarh were concentrated on peripheral areas falling under Punjab or Haryana, which means those two states would be impacted by a lower PCI.