Introduction: Good academic performance is important for children to ensure their personal well-being. This cross-sectional study investigated the associations between demographic and socio-economic characteristics, house- hold food security status and academic performance among primary school children at North Kinta, Perak, Malaysia. Methods: Two national primary schools were selected randomly and all Standard 5 and 6 students were invited to participate in this study. Self-administered questionnaire on demographic and socio-economic characteristics and food security status was completed by parents. The results from last year examination were acquired from the teach- er to evaluate students’ academic performance. Results: Overall, 140 respondents were involved, in which 51.4% were male. A majority of the household (80.7%) displayed food insecurity. Multiple logistic regression revealed that students from well-off households were more likely to have higher marks in English Language Comprehension (OR=8.28, 95%CI: 1.49, 45.91), Writing (OR=25.02, 95%CI: 2.36, 265.69) and Mathematics (OR=7.79, 95% CI:
1.44, 42.11). Female students showed high odds to pass English Language Comprehension (OR=3.47, 95% CI: 1.49, 8.16) and Writing (OR=4.16, 95%CI: 1.51, 11.45) compared to male students. Conclusion: This study unveiled that gender and low household income results in the low achievement in students’ academic. Therefore, for the upcom- ing intervention programmes should focusing more on helping students from poor households in order to enhance students’ academic performance.