Sustainable Development Goals for Malaysia

Child well-being

UNICEF’S commitment to data for children is guided by the fact that the SDGs impact every aspect of a child’s life. Our work is structured around 5 overarching areas of well-being for every child which are grounded in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

This human rights-based approach pursues a vision of realizing the rights of every child, especially the most disadvantaged and responds to the call to “leave no child behind”, so that the rights of every child, everywhere, will be fulfilled.

Child-related SDG indicators

The 2030 Agenda includes 17 Global Goals addressing the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Attached to the Goals are 169 concrete targets measured by 232 specific indicators.

To chart and track how ambitious and how realistic country targets are, UNICEF created quantifiable country-level benchmarks for child-related indicators for which data are available to measure and monitor child rights on a common scale.

Provided below is a stocktaking of the country’s performance against the 45 child-related SDG indicators, grouping the results into five areas of child well-being to provide an overall assessment of how children are faring. The countries are evaluated using global and national targets. The analysis provides valuable insights into both historic progress – recognizing the results delivered by countries in the recent past – as well as how much additional effort might be required to achieve the child-related SDG targets. This approach provides a framework to assess ambition as well as the scale of action needed to realize it.

Value
Latest year
with data
Historic progress
Effort needed to meet the 2030 target
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people in grades 2 or 3 achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in reading (%)
No data
No data
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people in grades 2 or 3 achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in mathematics (%)
No data
No data
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people at the end of primary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in reading (%)
58
2019
No trend data available
No target
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people at the end of primary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in mathematics (%)
64
2019
No trend data available
No target
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people at the end of lower secondary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in reading (%)
54
2018
Average
High effort
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people at the end of lower secondary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in mathematics (%)
59
2018
Very strong
High effort
4.1.2 Completion rate in primary education (%)
97
2005
Average
Low effort
4.1.2 Completion rate in lower secondary education (%)
88
2005
Strong
Low effort
4.1.2 Completion rate in upper secondary education (%)
37
2005
Strong
High effort
4.2.1 Proportion of children aged 36-59 months who are developmentally on track in health, learning and psychosocial well-being, by sex (%)
No data
No data
4.2.2 Participation rate in organized learning (one year before the official primary entry age) (%)
90
2020
Average
Average effort
Poverty Poverty
1.1.1 Children living in households in extreme poverty (%)
0
2022
Weak
Low effort
1.2.1 Children living below the national poverty line (%)
8
2019
Very weak
Low effort
1.2.1 Proportion of children living below the national poverty line, both sexes (%), Covid projections
0
2020
No trend data available
No trend data available
1.2.2 Children living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions (%)
No data
No data
1.3.1 Proportion of child population covered by social protection floors/systems (%)
3
2020
No trend data available
No trend data available
Legal frameworks that promote, enforce and monitor gender equality in employment and economic benefits
40
2022
No trend data available
No trend data available

Historic progress

  • Very weak
  • Weak
  • Average
  • Strong
  • Very strong
  • No trend data available
  • No data

Effort needed to hit relative target

  • Target met
  • Very low effort
  • Low effort
  • Average effort
  • High effort
  • Very high effort
  • Above recorded history
  • No trend data available
  • No data
  • No target

Note: This dashboard uses internationally comparable data from the global databases held on behalf of the international community by UNICEF and other United Nations agencies. While UNICEF is committed to the localization of SDG targets, global rather than national targets are used to gauge progress on the SDG indicators.  To read more about how the trajectories towards the global targets are assessed please read the methodology note.

Population overview

Understanding of a country’s population levels, trends and projections constitutes an essential ingredient in strategic planning, policy development and program implementation for addressing global challenges and emerging issues.

Total population: 34,308,525 (2023 projections)

Age (yrs)
Male
Female
0-4
5-9
10-14
15-19
20-24
25-29
30-34
35-39
40-44
45-49
50-54
55-59
60-64
65-69
70-74
75-79
80-84
85-89
90-94
95-99
100+
1,313,189
1,233,297
1,356,698
1,272,427
1,297,116
1,218,490
1,357,843
1,289,714
1,444,447
1,363,165
1,505,844
1,435,464
1,561,826
1,494,294
1,542,985
1,432,259
1,347,650
1,214,729
1,088,992
1,009,259
936,075
913,780
822,156
813,804
683,058
688,517
519,891
547,121
352,730
389,926
215,208
246,227
112,888
136,844
45,827
62,481
12,743
20,594
2,659
5,009
439
873
10
7.5
5
2.5
0
2.5
5
7.5
10
Share of total population (%)

Source: United Nations Population Division, World Population Prospects 2022

Related SDG resources