Malaysia’s population in 3Q up 0.06% to 32.63 million

November 14, 2019 editor Aging Population, Live Births, Mohd Uzir Mahidin, Statistics Department

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s population rose by 0.06% in the third quarter ended Sept 30,2019 to 32.63 million from a year ago while the Statistics Department data showed the number of people aged 65 and above was on the rise.

Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said on Thursday of the 32.63 million people, citizens accounting for 29.64 million or 90.3% and the remaining 23.18% were non-citizens.

The number of males rose from 16.74 million (in 3Q 2018) to 16.85 million while the number of females increased from 15.69 million to 15.78 million. The sex ratio remained at 107 males per 100 females.

“Selangor remained as the most populous state in the third quarter 2019 with 6.54 million people. Labuan recorded the lowest at 99,400, ” he said in the report on Demographic Statistics for 3Q 2019.

Mohd Uzir pointed out there was a slight decline in the population aged 0-1 years but the number of people in the working age from 15-64 showed a slight increase. However the number of people aged 65 and above increased at a faster pace.

“The composition of population aged 0-14 years old (young age) in 3Q 2019 decreased from 7.68 million in 3Q 2018 to 7.57 million. The population aged 15–64 years old (working age) increased from 22.64 million (3Q 2018) to 22.85 million in the same quarter this year.

“Similarly, the composition of population 65 years and over (old-age) increased from 2.12 million to 2.21 million during the same period. This trend is in line with other developed countries that are heading to ageing population, ” he said.

In 3Q 2019, he said there were 124,150 live births, down by 3% from a year ago when there were 127,956 live births.

In 3Q 2019, there were more male babies with 64,028 births compared with females at 60,122.

Selangor remained as the highest live births with 24,246 births (19.5%) while the lowest was recorded by Labuan (427 births: 0.3%).

A total of 41,772 deaths was recorded in 3Q 2019, down by 0.9% from 3Q 2018 (42,156).

The number of deaths recorded for males was 24,061 and females 17,711.

During the same period, Selangor recorded the highest number of deaths with 6,609 deaths (15.8%) while Labuan recorded the lowest with only 54 deaths (0.1%).