The State of Households 2024: Households and the Pandemic 2019-2022

Some Key takeaways of the report:

(1) Absolute poverty increased in 2019–2022, especially among urban households, rising from 3.8% in 2019 to 4.5% in 2022. Districts with higher poverty also had lower access to basic amenities, indicating a strong overlap between monetary and non-monetary poverty

(2) Food away from home is rapidly substituting food at home to become an essential part of Malaysian diet. Post-pandemic, Malaysian households spent nearly half, or 48%, of their food expenditure away from home

(3) The impact of school closures on education outcomes is present at the secondary school level. While SPM candidates’ achievements improved at the national level, the incidence of SPM absenteeism has increased post-pandemic. Meanwhile, the gap in student performance between rural and urban areas persists

(4) A nationwide, future-proof digital health system needs to be patient-centric, well-governed as well as inclusive in nature. The digitalisation of the healthcare system, and of public services overall, needs to be done in public interest, ensuring that it benefits the many and not the few

(5) The majority of EPF contributors have not reached the basic retirement savings threshold of RM250,000! This reflects a structural issue of low wages, particularly among those under 30, as only those in the top income decile (D10) are likely to meet the basic retirement savings threshold.

Read the Full Report at link below...

1. https://krinstitute.org/Publications-@-The_State_of_Households_2024-;_Households_and_the_Pandemic_2019-2022.aspx