DOSM says absolute poverty drops to 6.2% in 2022, with income inequality gap narrowed post-Covid-19

Monday 21 Sep 2026

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KUALA LUMPUR (July 28): Malaysia reported lower absolute poverty in 2022, based on the 6.2% incidence of absolute poverty reported — down from 8.1% in 2021, and 8.4% in 2020 during the height of the pandemic, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).

The absolute poverty of 6.2% reported for 2022 involved an estimated 487,576 households, as opposed to 5.6% in 2019 prior to the global health crisis, said chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin in a statement on the release of three inaugural reports: Malaysia's Poverty Report 2022; Malaysia's Income Inequality Report 2022, and Income Expenditure Poverty Inequality Summary 2022.

The value of Poverty Line Income (PLI) in 2022 was raised to RM2,589, from RM2,208 in 2019, with the PLI value of food at RM1,198, versus RM1,169 previously.

Urban poverty, meanwhile, increased relative to rural areas in the same period — rising to 4.5% in 2022 from 3.9% in 2019, while rural poverty dipped to 12% from 12.4%.

“The number of extreme poor households with income below RM1,198 decreased to 0.2% in 18,445 households as compared to 0.4% in 2019,” said Uzir.

The relative poverty threshold, which is determined based on 50% of the median household income, was at RM3,169 in 2022, with a relative poverty rate of 16.6%. Relative poverty is a situation in which people cannot afford to actively participate in society or benefit from activities and experiences that most people take for granted.

He added that DOSM also provided the multidimensional poverty index (MPI) to identify aspects of people’s deprivation in terms of educational facilities, health and standard of living to capture a more complete picture of poverty in the country.

“Preliminary findings of poverty incidence multidimensional 2022 was 1.9% compared to 2.6% (2019), with the household variance was 40.9%," he said, but did not elaborate. “Thus, MPI decreased to 0.8% compared to 1.1% in 2019. A report on MPI's findings will be published in August 2022,” he added.

Income inequality gap narrowed

The income inequality gap narrowed by 0.3% in 2022 as compared to 2019, based on the Gini coefficient statistical measure.

"The Gini coefficient in urban areas decreased to 0.393 from 0.398 (2019), while the gini coefficient in rural areas also decreased to 0.351 from 0.367. The Gini coefficient by ethnicity also decreased for all ethnicities, with Bumiputera at 0.387 from 0.389, Chinese at 0.412 from 0.417 and Indians at 0.406 from 0.411," he said.

Notwithstanding the increase in household income in Malaysia, the income gap between ethnic groups is still significant, Uzir added.

"The income gap between Chinese and Bumiputera ethnic groups is at a ratio of 1:0.71 (2022) as compared to 1:0.72 (2019). Meanwhile, the income gap between ethnic Chinese and ethnic Indians was 1:0.84 in 2022, which represents a marginal improvement as compared to 2019 (1:0.83)," he said.

According to DOSM, the income threshold for B40, which includes 3.16 million households, is RM5,249, while the M40 (Middle 40% income) group's income ranges between RM5,250 to RM11,819.

Meanwhile, as many as 1.58 million households are in T20 (Top 20% income group), with income exceeding RM11,820.

"The T20 group comprised 46.3% of the total distribution of household income, down slightly from 46.8% in 2019. Meanwhile, the M40 group comprised 37.6%, while the B40 only represented 16.1% of total income, up slightly from 16% in 2019," Uzir added.

Edited ByTan Choe Choe

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