For the first time, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) published the Malaysia Human Development Index Report for 2022, developed as an instrument to evaluate the level of human development in measuring the progress of a country aside from economic aspects.
MHDI comprises three main dimensions namely long and healthy life; access to knowledge and a decent standard of living. This index is developed based on Human Development Index (HDI) Report from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). MHDI is one of the indicators which can be used to analyse socio-economic development status of the nation and describe human development in a nation. The MHDI indicator is also one of the seven benchmarks in the madani economy and as a medium-term target to be achieved within 10 years. The main statistics presented in this report covers Malaysian citizens.
Chief Statistician Malaysia, Dato’ Sri Dr. Mohd Uzir Mahidin said “The MHDI is measured based on three main dimensions namely long and healthy life; access to knowledge and a decent standard of living. The long and healthy life dimension consists of one indicator which is life expectancy at birth. The access to knowledge dimension comprises two indicators namely expected years of schooling and mean years of schooling. The decent standard of living dimension consists of one indicator which is the Gross National Income (GNI) per capita”.
There are four categories of development level scores, namely the first category below 0.550 (low); second category 0.550 to 0.699 (medium); the third category 0.700 to 0.799 (high) and the fourth category 0.800 and above (very high). This measurement indicates that the higher the score value obtained, the better the level of Malaysia’s
development.
According to Dato’ Sri Dr. Mohd Uzir, “The performance of the MHDI in 2022 showed that the index score increased by 1.2 per cent to 0.816 as compared to 0.806 in 2021. Based on this score, MHDI is at a very high level of development category. An analysis by dimension index shows that the highest index score recorded in 2022 is Gross National Income Index (GNI) with a score of 0.872, followed by the Life Expectancy Index with a score of 0.823 and the Education Index with a score of 0.757. All indices are at a very high level of development except for the Education Index that registered high level development”.
The Life Expectancy Index score decreased by 0.4 per cent to 0.823 in 2022 as compared to 0.826 in 2021. This is due to the increase in the number of excess deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the same period, the Education Index score rose by1.5 per cent to 0.757 as compared to 0.746. Two indicators namely expected years of schooling and mean years of schooling contribute to the increase of this Education Index.
The GNI Index improved by 2.5 per cent to 0.872 in 2022 as compared to 0.851 in 2021 due to improved economic performance with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 8.7 per cent. GNI Index fall in the range 0.820 to 0.848 during the period 2015 to 2020.
Performance of MHDI by state
Eight (8) states were at a very high level of development in 2022. The state with the highest MHDI score was W.P. Kuala Lumpur and W.P. Putrajaya with a score of 0.886. This is followed by Selangor (0.842), W.P. Labuan (0.839), Pulau Pinang (0.830), Sarawak (0.824), Negeri Sembilan (0.817), Melaka (0.810) and Pahang (0.803). Meanwhile, states that registered high level of development were Johor (0.794), Perak (0.791), Terengganu (0.787), Sabah (0.772), Kedah (0.771), Perlis (0.768) and Kelantan (0.752).
