Abstract

Youth bankruptcy in Malaysia never happened in the 70s-80s, even in the 90s. However, entering the millennium age, starting in 2018, this issue caught everyone's attention and is quite concerning. Using the PISA examination result in Mathematics as an indication, we discovered the millennials that aged within this age group were the same cohort of students that were taking part in PISA 2009 (they were born in 1994 or 1995, and they aged between 29 and 28 years old in 2023) while in PISA 2012 (they were born in 1997 or 1998, they aged between 26 and 27 in 2023). In this examination, 15-year-old students in Malaysia performed below the average compared to their ASEAN counterparts. The impact of lower financial literacy among 15-year-olds and adults in Malaysia translated into high bankruptcy cases involving the millennial generation from 2018 until 2022. Malaysia never reached the OECD average score even a single time from 2009 until 2012. Data from the Department of Insolvency Malaysia show that millennial bankruptcy cases decreased from 2018 until 2022. Indeed, this is a sign that youth nowadays have become more aware and prudent with their financial spending. Still, there is a need for some government intervention and other related parties to prevent this issue from getting worse in the future.