Income Inequality In Malaysia

Its top 1 per cent income share was 19 per cent and the corresponding number for the top 10 per cent was 44 per cent which is higher than those of the us and substantially higher than those of china.

Income inequality in malaysia. Malaysia the source for global inequality data. The unhdp report shows that the richest 10 in malaysia control 38 4 of the economic income as compared to the poorest 10 who control only 1 7. However one should not confuse relative inequality with absolute inequality. Kuala lumpur despite a reduction in official income inequality the absolute earnings gap between malaysia s top 20 per cent and their other countrymen has nearly doubled putting more malaysians.

However according to official statistics from the prime minister s department inequality has been decreasing steadily since 1970 with the gini coefficient dropping to an all time low of 0 40 in 2014. In 2002 malaysia s inequality level was extremely high. Income inequality in malaysia remains high relative to other east asian countries but is gradually declining. The gini index of household incomes fell from 0 51 in 1970 to 0 40 in 2016.

Open access high quality wealth and income inequality data developed by an international academic consortium. Malaysia can claim more success than most countries in managing relative inequality. For developing countries as a whole average inequality has been roughly unchanged over a similar period. Income inequality is based on the income differences between the people of malaysia.

When it comes to gross income the income inequality in malaysia went up with the gini coefficient value increasing from 0 399 in 2016 to 0 407 in 2019. While income growth for the bottom 40 has outpaced the top 60 over much of the last decade the absolute gap across income groups has increased contributing to widespread perceptions of the poor being left behind. This is the first time since 2004 that the household income gap has been recorded as widening in malaysia based on the periodically available figures that previously showed income inequality to be on a generally declining trend.