Poverty by State

Data as of 2022

Poverty rates by state from 1970 to 2022.

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Table

Hardcore Poverty

Absolute Poverty

How is this data produced?

In general, poverty is defined as having household income below a specific benchmark. Accordingly, statistics on poverty in Malaysia are produced and published together with statistics on household income derived from the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES), which is conducted at least twice within any 5-year period. This dataset presents 3 definitions of poverty:

  1. Absolute Poverty: A household is considered to be in absolute poverty if their gross monthly household income is below the Poverty Line Income (PLI). This indicates that the household does not earn sufficient income to meet basic needs for a dignified life.
  2. Hardcore Poverty: A household is considered to be in hardcore poverty if their gross monthly household income is below the Food Poverty Line Income (Food PLI). This indicates that the household does not earn sufficient income to meet basic calorie requirements. It should be noted that hardcore poverty is a subset of absolute poverty.
  3. Relative Poverty: A household is considered to be in relative poverty if their gross monthly household income is below half the state median income. This measure is used to assess relative deprivation within the country, especially as absolute and hardcore poverty rates approach 0, as is the case for Malaysia.

For full details on the methodology, especially the computation of the PLI and its evolution and nuances, please refer to the technical notes.

What caveats I should bear in mind when using this data?

Given that the data is produced from surveys spanning over half a century, the following methodological changes should be noted:

  • Data for 1970 and 1974 refers to Peninsular Malaysia only. 1976 was the first year in which Sabah and Sarawak were included in the survey.
  • Data from 1989 onwards refers to Malaysian citizens only. Although non-citizens are also included in the surveys, the official statistics (which form the basis for national welfare policy) are based on citizens only
  • Kuala Lumpur was gazzeted as a Federal Territory on 1 February 1974. Accordingly, data for W.P. Kuala Lumpur is only available from 1976. Prior to that, data for residents of W.P. Kuala Lumpur was included under Selangor.
  • Labuan was gazetted as a Federal Territory on 16 April 1984. However, due to limitations in sampling, data for W.P. Labuan is only available from 2004. Prior to that, data for residents of W.P. Labuan was included under Sabah.
  • Putrajaya was gazzeted as a Federal Territory on 1 February 2001. However, due to limitations in sampling, data for W.P. Putrajaya is only available from 2007. Prior to that, data for residents of W.P. Putrajaya was included under Selangor.

Publication(s) using this data

The Household Income Survey Report, 2022, the latest edition of the household income statistics published by DOSM. OpenDOSM also features a dashboard on household income which enables you to explore Malaysia's household income data interactively.

Metadata

Dataset description

Poverty rates by state from 1970 to 2022.

Variable definitions
  • State
  • Date
  • Absolute Poverty Rate
  • Hardcore Poverty Rate
  • Relative Poverty Rate
Last updated:

28 Jul 2023, 12:00

Next update:

N/A

Data source(s)
  • DOSM
License

This data is made open under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). A copy of the license is available Here.

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Data
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Code

Connect directly to the data with Python.

# If not already installed, do: pip install pandas fastparquet import pandas as pd URL_DATA = 'https://storage.dosm.gov.my/hies/hh_poverty_state.parquet' df = pd.read_parquet(URL_DATA) if 'date' in df.columns: df['date'] = pd.to_datetime(df['date']) print(df)

Sample OpenAPI query

The following code is an example of how to make an API query to retrieve the data catalogue mentioned above. You can use different programming languages by switching the code accordingly. For a complete guide on possible query parameters and syntax, please refer to the official Open API Documentation.

import requests import pprint url = "https://api.data.gov.my/data-catalogue?id=hh_poverty_state&limit=3" response_json = requests.get(url=url).json() pprint.pprint(response_json)