Income percentiles in Malaysia
Where each yearly income band starts in Malaysia, in MYR, and what a reading there measures.
Reference data version 2026.4, reference year 2024.
Three cut-offs
- Bottom tenth
- under RM17,000 a year
- Top tenth
- from RM100,000 a year
- Top hundredth
- from RM260,000 a year
The middle of the distribution, the 40th to 55th percentile, is RM34,000 – RM45,000 a year.
Every band
The 11 bands the income question offers in Malaysia, verbatim, lowest first.
| Band | Yearly income |
|---|---|
| Below the 10th percentile | under RM17,000 |
| 10th to 25th percentile | RM17,000 – RM25,000 |
| 25th to 40th percentile | RM25,000 – RM34,000 |
| 40th to 55th percentile | RM34,000 – RM45,000 |
| 55th to 70th percentile | RM45,000 – RM60,000 |
| 70th to 80th percentile | RM60,000 – RM76,000 |
| 80th to 90th percentile | RM76,000 – RM100,000 |
| 90th to 95th percentile | RM100,000 – RM140,000 |
| 95th to 98th percentile | RM140,000 – RM200,000 |
| 98th to 99th percentile | RM200,000 – RM260,000 |
| Top 1% | RM260,000 or more |
Per earner. The source publishes household income divided by everyone in the household; the labels multiply it by 2.01, the people one worker's income stands for in Malaysia, so a person can place their own income.
What the data rests on
- Confidence
- Low
- Years covered
- 1981 to 2024
- Survey-based years
- 23% of covered years
- Nearest survey
- 3 years from 2024
- Age bands
- none published; the all-ages row answers
- Measured on
- income
- Currency
- MYR (RM)
Why: only 23% of covered years rest on a survey estimate.
What a reading in Malaysia measures
- Your place: which of the bands above your income is in now, against the band it was in a year ago, read as a position in the income distribution of Malaysia itself.
- Your ground: both incomes with consumer prices in Malaysia taken out, against how the middle of the distribution moved over the same year.
- Nothing is compared across borders. A reading in Malaysia is measured against Malaysia alone.
A band is a range, so a move inside one band does not register, and published distributions understate the very top. The confidence level above travels onto every card measured here.