Poverty mapping and assessing the relationship between poverty and socio-demographic characteristics of households: A study in Kelantan, Malaysia

Abstract

Background and Objective: Though the Malaysian economy experienced a large reduction in the incidence of poverty during the last few decades, the rate of poverty is still high in several states of the country. This study aims to estimate the poverty rate at smaller areas such as districts in the state of Kelantan, Malaysia through poverty mapping. The study also examines the association of poverty status of the households with their socio-demographic characteristics in the state. Methodology: The data were obtained from the Implementation and Coordination Unit (ICU), Malaysia which collected the information through household survey in the 10 districts in Kelantan from 2008-2011. Summary descriptive statistics were applied to analyze socio-demographic characteristics of the surveyed households. The ArcGIS 10 was used for poverty mapping to show spatial distribution of poverty. It was found that majority of the households in each district of the state are trapped in poverty (either hard-core poor, poor or vulnerable to poverty). However, a significantly lower portion (on average, 5%) of the households in each district is hard-core poor. The rural areas of the state experience higher incidences of poverty as compared to urban locality. Results: It was also found that majority (on average, 55%) of the households from each ethnic group are vulnerable to poverty. Similarly, the greatest portion of the households from each group of occupation are poor and vulnerable to poverty (on averge, 81% on a collective basis). Conclusion: The findings of this study provide an insight about poverty statistics at smaller area and socio-demographic distribution of the poor households which might be helpful in identifying priority areas and targeting anti-poverty programmes to minimize the incidence of poverty at district, state as well as national level.