Income inequality vs. GDP per capita in Malaysia
Malaysia: Income inequality vs. GDP per capita was 0.4067 in 2021. ▼ Falling
Income inequality vs. GDP per capita in Malaysia, 1984–2021
Source: World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data.
Analysis
In 2021, income inequality vs. gdp per capita in Malaysia stood at 0.4067. That is the lowest value across all 14 years on record.
That represents a change of down 1.2% on the previous year and down 6.6% over ten years.
Over the whole period, income inequality vs. gdp per capita in Malaysia peaked at 0.4915 in 1997 and was at its lowest, 0.4067, in 2021.
That places Malaysia 23rd out of 120 countries with data for 2021, putting it in the top quarter.
The long-run direction has been consistently falling across the 14 years of available data.
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980s | 0.4724 | 0.4617 | 0.485 | 3 |
| 1990s | 0.4844 | 0.4765 | 0.4915 | 3 |
| 2000s | 0.4555 | 0.4475 | 0.4642 | 3 |
| 2010s | 0.4179 | 0.4107 | 0.4355 | 4 |
| 2020s | 0.4067 | 0.4067 | 0.4067 | 1 |
Countries ranked near Malaysia
More poverty & inequality data for Malaysia
- Number of income/consumption surveys in the past decade available via the World Bank 2 surveys (2025)
- Fertility rate vs. share living in extreme poverty 1.55 live births per woman (2023)
- Cereal yield vs. share in extreme poverty 3,524 kg per hectare (2023)
- Tax revenue as share of GDP vs. income inequality 12.6% (2023)
- Gender Inequality Index 0.172 (2023)
- Share of government consumption in GDP vs. share of population living in extreme poverty 12.5% (2023)
- Lifespan inequality: Gini coefficient in women 0.1011 (2023)
- Lifespan inequality: Gini coefficient by sex 0.1011 (2023)
- Lifespan inequality: Gini coefficient in men 0.1209 (2023)
- Income inequality: Atkinson index 0.2476 (2023)
Frequently asked questions
- What is income inequality vs. gdp per capita in Malaysia?
- Income inequality vs. gdp per capita in Malaysia was 0.4067 in 2021, according to World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data.
- What is the highest income inequality vs. gdp per capita recorded in Malaysia?
- The highest recorded value was 0.4915 in 1997.
- What is the lowest income inequality vs. gdp per capita recorded in Malaysia?
- The lowest recorded value was 0.4067 in 2021.
- How does Malaysia rank for income inequality vs. gdp per capita?
- Malaysia ranks 23rd out of 120 countries with data for 2021.
- Is income inequality vs. gdp per capita rising or falling in Malaysia?
- Over the last ten years it is down 6.6%. The long-run trend across the full record is falling.
- Where does this Malaysia data come from?
- The figures come from World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data, published as part of Income inequality vs. GDP per capita. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
Download this data
CSV · JSON — 14 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data).
About this data
The Gini coefficient measures inequality on a scale from 0 to 1. Higher values indicate higher inequality.