M'sia heading into an ageing nation, says chief statistician

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia is heading into an ageing nation, with the percentage of population aged 0-14 years decreasing to 23.3% compared to 23.5% in 2019, says the Malaysian Statistics Department.

The overall percentage of 15-64 years, or the working age, also decreased from 69.8% in 2019 to 69.7% in 2020.

Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin (pic) said that this is due to the reduction in the non-citizens population, which mostly comprises of foreign workers.

"The percentage of the population aged 65 years and over, or old age, also increased from 6.7% to 7% over the same period," he said.

Meanwhile, Malaysia's population this year is estimated at 32.7 million compared to 32.5 million in 2019 with an annual growth rate of 0.4%.

Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the decline in the population growth rate was due to the decrease in the number of non-citizens from 3.1 million in 2019 to 3 million this year.

"This is in line with the closure of our national borders and the return of foreigners to their respective countries during the movement control order (MCO) following the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic worldwide," he said while presenting the findings in a press conference on Wednesday (July 15).

Out of the 32.7 million estimated population, 29.7 million were citizens while three million were non-citizens.

"The growth rate of citizens remained stable at 1.1% with the population increasing from 29.4 million in 2019 to 29.7 million in 2020," he said.

At 16.8 million, males continue to outnumber the country's 15.9 million females, with the sex ratio as a whole nation remaining at 106 males to 100 females in 2020.

Ethnic Indians and Chinese also continue to show a decline in population while out of the 29.7 million citizens, bumiputra rose 0.3% to account for 69.6% in 2020 compared to 69.3% in 2019.

"However, Chinese and Indians population declined to 22.6% this year compared to 22.8% in 2019 and 6.9% compared to 6.8% in 2019 respectively.

"Others remained at 1%," he said.