Nearly 815,000 People With Disabilities Were on Malaysia’s 2025 Register

Malaysia's welfare department recorded 814,966 registered people with disabilities in 2025. Learning disabilities formed the largest category, accounting for about two in five people on the register.

The Department of Statistics Malaysia reported Wednesday that the register represented 2.4% of the estimated population of 34.2 million. That proportion describes people recorded by the Department of Social Welfare. People with disabilities who were not registered fall outside that count, so the release does not establish national disability prevalence.

The 2025 register included 326,387 people in the learning disability category, 270,957 in the physical disability category and 67,401 in the visual impairment category. Learning and physical disabilities together accounted for about 73% of registrations. Speech disabilities were the smallest reported category, at 4,153.

Welfare and School Enrollment Show Different Measures

The number of recipients of disability financial assistance rose 5.4% to 276,767 from 262,618. Disbursements rose to RM1.15 billion from RM1.09 billion, according to the department. The department put the increase in disbursements at 5.2%, calculated from figures more precise than the rounded amounts it published in its overview. The recipient total describes participation in financial assistance rather than eligibility among every person on the register. It does not identify the reasons people outside the recipient count did not receive payments.

The education figures show increases across three separately reported settings. Special education schools recorded a 2.9% increase at preschool level and 5% increases at primary and secondary levels. The integrated special education program recorded growth of 8.8% at preschool level, 10.7% at primary level and 12.9% at secondary level. The inclusive education program recorded a 36.1% increase at preschool level, alongside 10% at primary level and 14.1% at secondary level.

The difference between those growth rates is useful for identifying where participation is changing fastest. It does not establish which program added the most children, because the initial enrollment totals are different. Each series describes a particular educational setting, rather than a separate estimate of the number of Malaysian children with disabilities.

The release also reported separate clinic activity: 671 infants under one with detected disabilities received services at health clinics in 2025, down from 781 in 2024. The clinic count covers that age group and service setting. It should not be compared directly with the all-ages registration total.

Civil Service Count Rises to 4,733

Malaysia recorded 4,733 civil servants with disabilities in 2025, up from 4,304 in 2024. Selangor recorded the strongest increase reported in the release, at 17%, followed by Pahang at 15.9% and Putrajaya at 14.9%. Employees with physical disabilities represented 65.1% of civil servants with disabilities in the data. Those with visual impairments accounted for 19.7%, and those with hearing disabilities for 8.5%.

The civil service total covers government employment tracked in the release; it is not a national employment rate or a measure of hiring across private businesses. Taken alongside the welfare and education data, it shows where public agencies recorded changes in use of services and participation during 2025. Assessing access among people outside those systems would require evidence beyond the administrative counts.

DOSM also recorded 102 para athletes in 2025, compared with 96 in 2024. The sports figure comes from a separate administrative source and captures athletes recorded in that series. It is one more example of why the release reports several measures: registration provides a national administrative total, while each service or institution tracks the people it serves or records in its own program.