KUCHING, Sept 23 — As many as 43.6 per cent of the total 625,400 households in Sarawak still earn below RM4,000 with 10.7 per cent earning less than RM2,000, according to the Household Income and Basic Amenities Survey Report by State and Administrative District, Sarawak 2019.
Released by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) in July this year, the survey pointed out that this marked an improvement compared to 2016 when the income class of RM3,999 and below stood at 47.6 per cent, with 15.5 per cent earning less than RM2,000.
Last year, households that earned RM4,000 to RM7,999 were 33.4 per cent but in 2016, the same income class constituted 34.4 per cent, said the survey.
The survey showed an increase of three per cent to 16.6 of households earning between RM10,000 and RM13,999 last year compared to 13.6 per cent in 2016.
The number of households earning RM14,000 to RM19,999 last year increased by 1.3 per cent compared to 3.2 per cent in 2016, it said.
The survey added that there was an increase of 0.7 per cent in the RM20,000 and above income class last year from 1.2 per cent in 2016.
“In 2019, mean income in Sarawak was RM5,959 while median income was at RM4,544. Generally, this scenario is in line with the situation in most other states where it pictures the inequality of household income that is influenced by a group of high-income households.
“In terms of growth, median income in Sarawak grew by 2.9 per cent per year in 2019 compared to 4.9 per cent in 2016. Moreover, mean income rose 3.4 per cent in 2019,” said the survey.
In terms of mean income, Bintulu recorded the highest value at RM8,324 followed by Kuching (RM7,376), Miri (RM7,235), Samarahan (RM6,789), Sibu (RM6,140) and Limbang (RM5,989) while other administrative districts recorded mean income below the state level of RM5,959.
The mean income for 20 administrative districts exceeded the state growth rate of 3.4 per cent, with Limbang recording the highest growth rate of 9.1 per cent followed by Mukah (7.9), Lubok Antu (7.8), Tatau (7.1), Simunjan (6.5), Dalat (6.3), Kuching (5.4), Serian (5.3), Kapit (5.3), Saratok (5.2), Bintulu (5.2), Pakan (4.7), Sarikei (4.6),Sibu (4.4), Betong (4.2), Selangau (4.1), Maradong (3.9), Daro (3.8), Matu (3.6) and Sri Aman (3.6).
Bintulu also recorded the highest median income of RM7,380 followed by Samarahan (RM5,858), Miri (RM5,763), Kuching (RM5,740), Sibu (RM4,809), Tatau (RM4,638) and Limbang (RM4,628) while other administrative districts recorded median income below the state level of RM4,544.
Limbang registered the highest annual growth rate of median income at 12.8 per cent over the period of 2016 to 2019.
Eighteen administrative districts that exceeded the state median growth rate of 2.9 per cent were Daro at 7.7 per cent followed by Mukah (7.6), Bintulu (7.1), Selangau (5.7), Sri Aman (5.4), Simunjan (5.2), Serian (4.8), Kuching (4.8), Matu (4.8), Sibu (4.7), Samarahan (4.6), Pakan (4.5), Lawas (4.1), Tatau (3.9), Dalat (3.5), Miri (3.4), Maradong (3.1) and Sarikei (3.1).
The statistics on income published in this report are based on the concepts and guidelines from Canberra Group Handbook on Household Income Statistics, Second Edition, 2011 published by the United Nations.
On average, household size in Sarawak was four persons last year compared to 4.1 persons in 2016. Most households or 53.6 per cent have four members or more. It was 57.9 per cent in 2016.
While households with three members constituted 18.5 per cent compared to 17.6 per cent in 2016, households with two members made up 17.2 per cent, an increase of 1.4 per cent from 2016.
Single households made up 10.7 per cent of the total, up two per cent from 2016.
The survey also found out that average household size in rural areas was 3.8 persons.
The median income for urban areas in Sarawak rose to RM5,789 last year from RM5,246 in 2016 and in rural areas it increased to RM3,195 last year from RM2,959 in 2016.
In urban areas, the mean income went up to RM7,243 last year from RM6,548 in 2016, and an increment was also noted for rural areas, from RM3,695 in 2016 to RM4,218 last year.
In terms of household income, the number of income recipients in Sarawak, on average, was 1.7 persons last year, the same as that of 2016.
Households with one income recipient had the highest percentage composition at 53.5 per cent followed by two income recipients and three income recipients at 31.5 per cent and 10.2 per cent, respectively.
Those with four and more income recipients constituted only 4.8 per cent of the total.
Based on the findings, income from paid employment is the main source of income, constituting 62.5 per cent of total household income, followed by income from self employment at 15 per cent, income from property and investment (12 pct) and current transfer received (10.5 pct). (Current transfer consists of cash, goods or services. The main motivation is to redistribute income either by government or individual/private, for example, Bantuan Sara Hidup-BSH and zakat.)
In 2016, income from paid employment made up 64.5 per cent of the total household income followed by income from self employment at 12.8 per cent, income from property and investment (11.5 pct) and current transfer received (11.2 pct).
The findings from the survey showed the income threshold for 250,200 B40 household group last year was RM3,719 while the M40 group’s income threshold involving 250,200 households was between RM3,720 and RM8,649, and 125,000 households in the T20 group was more than RM8,649.
In terms of income distribution, the T20 group constituted 45.1 per cent of the total household income while the M40 group comprised 38.3 per cent and the B40 only made up 16.6 per cent of the total income.
Based on these findings, the mean income of B40 was found to lie below its median income, which implied that income distribution within this group was positively skewed or skewed to the right to which a larger proportion of lower-income households had pushed down the mean income value.
Despite so, the M40 and T20 groups both recorded mean income above the median income. The former had mean income of RM5,707 while the median income value was RM5,478, and the latter recorded its mean and median income of RM13,446 and RM11,856, respectively.
Such findings indicated that income distribution was negatively skewed or skewed to the left where households with higher incomes mostly clustered towards the right side of the distribution, leading to lower value of median income compared with its mean income value.
The survey also showed last year’s median disposable income as RM3,994, a rise of 3.3 per cent from RM3,613 in 2016.
In addition, mean disposable income was RM5,218 from RM4,668 in 2016. The mean disposable income recorded last year constituted 87.6 per cent of the total mean gross income.
In accordance with the 2019 methodology, the mean Poverty Line Income (PLI) value in Sarawak was RM2,131 per month while the mean Food PLI value was RM1,096 monthly with average household size of four persons.
A household is categorised as relative poor if its total household income is below the threshold of relative poverty. (Relative poverty refers to measurement approach of which the household income is compared with a certain standard of living determined by the society).
The threshold of relative poverty depends on current distribution of household income in reference year. According to the survey, the value of relative poverty last year was 15.2 per cent compared to 16.8 per cent in 2016.
According to DoSM, basic amenities are necessary in determining household quality of life and the level of development of a nation.
In the basic amenities survey, information collected included home ownership, access to electricity and water supplies and garbage collection facilities as well as access to education and health services and household equipment and facilities.
In Sarawak, owner-occupied dwelling owned by households increased by 4.6 per cent last year from 81 per cent in 2016 while rented dwellings decreased by 1.6 per cent last year from 10.2 per cent in 2016.
Over the same period, the percentage of households living in quarters also decreased by three points to 5.8 per cent.
The level of room crowdedness experienced by households increased by 0.1 per cent from 13.1 per cent in 2016. A household is defined as deprived in terms of bedroom usage when a room has more than two household members.
In Sarawak, 86.4 per cent of households had access to piped water last year, marking an increase of 0.4 per cent in 2016 while 99.8 per cent of households were equipped with electricity supply, up 0.2 per cent from 2016.
During the same period, garbage collection services to living quarters increased to 56.7 per cent, recording an increase of 3.7 per cent.
Last year, 73.5 per cent of households in the state resided within less than five kilometres from public health centres compared to 65.1 per cent in 2016.
Households with a distance of less than five kilometres from government primary and secondary schools increased to 94.1 per cent (from 90.2 per cent in 2016) and 74.8 per cent (from 69.6 per cent in 2016), respectively.
The survey, scientifically done using probability sampling (which sample was selected based on a list of households obtained from the Population and Housing Census conducted every 10 years), is carried out once or twice in five years to provide the data regarding income, poverty and basic amenities for citizens only.
It is aimed at collecting information on income distribution pattern of households, gathering current statistics on poor households and identifying the accessibility of basic amenities by households.
Data from the survey are pertinent information used by government agencies as input in the planning, developing and monitoring of national development plans.
These data also serve as essential reference to economists, academicians, the private sector and individuals for more detailed analysis.
The information on household income was collected for a period of 12 months. For example, the month of survey is December 2019, the household income is calculated from Dec 1, 2018 to Nov 30, 2019.
In the context of income and basic amenities, the survey conducted represents 7.3 million Malaysian households last year, 625,400 of which are in Sarawak.
With an area of 124,451 square kilometres, Sarawak is the largest state in Malaysia. The state’s total population was estimated at 2.8 million last year, of which, 1.3 million were in the labour force comprising skilled workers (20.3 per cent), semi-skilled workers (62.9 per cent) and low-skilled workers (16.8 per cent).
Last year, 70.3 per cent of the total population were between 15 and 64 years old while 22.5 per cent were aged zero to 14 years and 7.6 per cent aged 65 years and above.
The survey covers both urban and rural areas including the remote areas of the states in Malaysia.
Coverage of the survey are households living in private living quarters only and does not include those living in residential institutions such as hostels, hotels, hospitals, old folks homes, prisons and welfare homes.
A household is defined as a person or group of related or unrelated persons who usually live together and make common provisions for food and other living essentials.
Components of the basic amenities covered are education, health, housing and household appliances and amenities.
The government has declared Oct 20 as National Statistics Day (MyStats Day). The theme for this year’s MyStats Day is ‘Connecting The World With Data We Can Trust’. — Borneo Post
