Zahid: Over 40,000 centenarians in Malaysia, most are Chinese

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has more than 40,000 centenarians based on census done by the National Registration Department. 

"As of Sept 15 this year, there are a total of 43,599 Malaysians who are more than 100 years old," said Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in a written reply to a question by Datuk Seri Noh Omar (BN-Tanjung Karang) Tuesday. 

Of the figure, he said more than three-quarters of the centenarians were Chinese, with the fewest from the orang asli community. 

The Chinese community had 36,251 centenarians followed by Malays, totalling 2,671, and Indians with 2,570. 

Dr Ahmad Zahid also said that there were 747 centenarians from the Sarawak ethnic group, 432 from Sabah, and 921 from Malaysians, classified as "others" as well as seven orang asli.