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Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 20. August 27 1979

Income Distribution in Malaysia

Income Distribution in Malaysia

Percentage Distribution of Households by income in Peninsular Malaysia 1970.

Source Mid Term Review of 2nd Malaysian Plan 1971-75.

Income Range (per month) household
Under M$100 27.1%
M$100-$199 31.4%
M$200-$399 25.9%
M$400-$1499 14.3%
M$ 1500 and above 1.4%

The table above shows 1.4% of the households earn more than M$1500 per month while 84.4% of households earn less than M$400 per month. The treasury report also stated that 40% of the population live on less than M$25 (roughly NZ$10) per month in 1970. From this it is clear that even the price of a decent low cost house (M$10,000 to M$20,000) would be beyond the reach of the majority of the people. For example it took one of the residents of Tasek Utara 30 years to save M$10,000. With inflation rocketing up and the increase in demand for housing units, it is not surprising that many save the sum only to find the price of the house is many times higher than before. On the other hand we have people owning 2 or more unoccupied houses resulting in the wastage of a valuable resource.