Selangor most expensive state to live in, says statistics dept

Chief statistician Uzir Mahidin says the state topped the highest basic expenditure of decent living index across household sizes in 2024.

The PAKW index measures the minimum expenditure required to maintain a decent standard of living across states, administrative districts and state capitals.

PETALING JAYA:

 Selangor recorded the highest basic expenditure of decent living (PAKW) indices across household sizes in 2024, while Kelantan, Kedah and Perlis were among the states with the lowest, according to the Cost of Living Indicators 2024 released today by the statistics department.

Introduced last year, the PAKW index measures the minimum expenditure required to maintain a decent standard of living across states, administrative districts and state capitals.

The index uses Kuala Lumpur as the reference point, with a value of 100, against which all other locations are measured.

Lower index values indicate lower expenditures required to maintain a decent standard of living compared with the reference, while higher values reflect greater expenditure requirements.

Chief statistician Uzir Mahidin said the PAKW analysis for households in 2024 revealed clear disparities in the cost of living across states.

“For single-person households, Selangor recorded the highest index at 92 points, followed by Penang at 84.2 points and Putrajaya at 83.1 points, while the lowest index values were recorded in Kelantan and Sarawak at 53.7 points each, and Kedah at 56.6 points,” Bernama reported him as saying today.

Uzir said a similar pattern was observed for two-, three- and four-person households, with Selangor consistently recording the highest index values, while Kelantan, Kedah, Perlis and Sabah registered lower levels, though still reflecting a decent standard of living.

Based on PAKW index analysis, the reasonable cost of living for a single-person household in Kelantan was 46.3% lower than that in Kuala Lumpur, while for a four-person household, the reasonable expenditure level in Perlis was 39.1% lower than the capital.

Separately, Uzir said the homeownership rate in Malaysia reached 78% in 2024. He noted that according to the 2024 Malaysia Basic Amenities Survey Report, homeownership by ethnicity shows that 75.0% of Bumiputera households own homes, up from 73.3% in 2022.

He also said 97.2% of households had access to treated piped water, while almost all households, or 99.9%, had access to electricity.

“These findings show Malaysian households enjoy strong access to housing and essential utilities across income and ethnic groups,” he said.

Uzir said Malaysians continued to benefit from significant healthcare access, with 97.8% of households being within five kilometres of a public healthcare facility, and 92.8% within the same distance of a private healthcare facility.

“This indicates that households in both urban and rural areas have good access to medical services, contributing to more equitable and comprehensive health coverage nationwide,” he said.

The report also highlighted that educational institutions remained easily accessible, with 98.7% of households being within five kilometres of a primary school, 95.9% from a secondary school and 98.2% from a public kindergarten.

Uzir said Malaysian households were increasingly equipped with essential technologies supporting communication, learning and access to information, as smartphone ownership stood at 98.4%, while internet subscriptions rose to 99.6%. - FMT