Constructing an Index Model of social well-being for Peninsular Malaysia

Social Well-being may differ spatially from scale to scale; what appears to indicate positive scores at a state level, for instance, may not approximate the reality at district or village levels. In Malaysia the official Well-being Reports of Malaysia 2013 depicts the progressive achievement of the government effort in improving social-wellbeing in the country , in particular, with respect to infrastructure development. What is amiss in the Reports, however, is the improvement scores hitherto achieved at smaller spatial scales such as the district and village levels. This ommision makes it difficult to detect the reality of social well-being improvement or otherwise at district , county and village levels – a situation which is not in tune with the mission and goals of a nation-wide improvement of the Wawasan 2020. By constructing an Index Model using the ArcGIS softwares, this study shows how Peninsular Malaysian social-being differs at district levels , a fact which is obscured at state levels.