PETALING JAYA: There are over 1.2 million Malaysians still living in poverty, says Datuk Mustapha Sakmud.
The Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Sabah and Sarawak Affairs) said a total of 1,204,995 Malaysians (including 247,062 heads of household) are still categorised as living in poverty as of Dec 31, 2025, based on data from the Household Income Survey.
Mustapha said Sabah has the highest number of people living in poverty with 254,303, followed by Kelantan (239,850) and Terengganu (117,159).
Other states with high numbers are Sarawak (103,968), Kedah (91,768), Perak (79,455), Selangor (65,177), Pahang (47,837), Penang (44,852), Perlis (40,620) and Johor (39,022).
States with a low number of people living in poverty are Negri Sembilan (29,591), Melaka (25,647) and the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur (17,885), Labuan (7,786) and Putrajaya (75).
He added that there are no Malaysians under the hardcore poverty category based on the data.
"The categorisation of poverty depends on the household per capita income and is based on a calculation formula provided by the Economy Ministry.
"Meanwhile the status of hardcore poverty is determined based on the current Poverty Line Income (PLI), which is periodically revised to adjust for changes in the cost of living, food prices, inflation rate and location-specific costs.
"The government recognises that poverty measurement cannot be considered static and must be continuously reviewed according to the current ongoing context," he said in a parliamentary written reply dated Jan 29.
Mustapha was responding to a question from Zahari Kechik (IND-Jeli) who wanted to know the current number of poor and hardcore poor under eKasih and what initiatives were being implemented by the government to eradicate hardcore poverty.
Currently, Malaysia's population is estimated at 34.3 million as at November 2025, according to the Statistics Department.
