Working life was the biggest driver of Malaysians' wellbeing growth in 2019

Malaysia's wellbeing index saw an improvement in 2019, a 0.6% increase from the year before (121.0 in 2019, 120.3 in 2018). 

According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia's (DOSM) data, released on 31 December 2020, this increase was driven by the growth in economic wellbeing, which stood at 2.3%.

Breaking the data down, the highest growth was observed in the following order:

• Working life (4.4%)
• Transport (3.9%)
• Education (2.8%)

On the other hand, the social wellbeing sub-composite index recorded a decline of 0.6%.

Based on the index points, per an analysis of the country's economic wellbeing, the transport component recorded the highest index with 139.6 index points in 2019, followed by the education component with 133.2 index points, and communications with 130.9 index points.

At the same time, the DOSM in terms of social wellbeing, the entertainment and recreation component recorded the highest index with 132.5 index points, followed by public safety with 132.3 index points, and governance with 122.7 index points. While this was so, the family index has yet to show an improvement from the previous year, registering an index of 97.4 (2018: 97.3).

Lead image and table / DOSM