Relationship between Poverty and Socio-demographic Characteristics of Poor Households: A Case Study in Kelantan, Malaysia

Abstract

Poverty is a complex and comprehensive phenomenon and covers many dimensions of human and social behaviour. Therefore, poverty reduction has become the most important issue in the development policies of almost all the countries including Malaysia. Poverty in Malaysia has generally been perceived as a rural problem since poverty is much higher in rural areas of the country. This study aims to identify the socio-demographic factors that affect the levels of poverty among the households in Kelantan, Malaysia. The paper also focuses on various aspect of household poverty in Kelantan state of Malaysia. The data for this study were obtained from the Implementation and Coordination Unit (ICU), Malaysia which collected the information through household survey in the 65 sub-districts under 10 districts in the Kelantan state of Malaysia. The data were descriptively analyzed utilizing the socio-demographic profiling approach. The surveyed households were divided into four poverty groups: poorest, poor, vulnerable and out of poor. Findings of the study show that proportion of the poor households in rural areas is higher (39.11%) than that of urban poor (30.15%). In contrast, a greater portion of the urban households (52.80%) are vulnerable to poverty compared to the rural households (35.98%) of the state. Analysis also reveals that the lowest portion (on average, 4.5%) of the household’s heads in each education level are the poorest while the greatest portion (on average, 48%) of them are vulnerable to poverty. Majority of the families from each poverty group live in a very poor or poor housing condition. Therefore, further research on identification of poverty groups and socio-economic characteristics of such groups is urgently needed for more effective policies and approaches to reduce the rate of poverty in the country.