Malaysia's 2021 live births highest decrease in decade

KUALA LUMPUR: The number of live births in Malaysia saw the highest decrease in a decade with 439,744 births recorded in 2021 compared to 471,504 births in 2020, according to the Vital Statistics Malaysia 2021 report released by the Department of Statistics Malaysia on Thursday (Oct 13).

Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the Crude Birth Rate (CBR) has declined from 14.5 births in 2020 compared to 13.5 births in 2021 per thousand population.

"The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) also showed a declining trend with 1.7 babies per woman of childbearing aged 15 to 49 years in 2021 compared to 1.8 babies in 2020,” he said in a statement today.

He said for the period of 2011 to 2021, the TFR for all major ethnic groups except Malay also showed a declining trend where the highest TFR was recorded by the Malay with 2.2 babies while Chinese was the lowest with 0.8 babies per woman.

Mohd Uzir said the number of death in 2021 has increased by 34.5 per cent or 57,599 deaths from 166,970 deaths recorded in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic with the CDR recorded an increase from 5.1 in 2020 to 6.9 in 2021 deaths per thousand population.

"All age groups recorded an increase in the number of deaths except those aged 0 to 14 which decreased from 4,288 deaths in 2020 to 4,115 deaths in 2021,” he said.

Meanwhile, the number of deaths aged 41 to 59 years recorded the highest increase of 44 per cent from 36,318 in 2020 deaths to 52,282 deaths in 2021.

Mohd Uzir added that the number of deaths for those aged 15 to 40 years and 60 years and above has also shown an increase from 13,070 deaths to 17,953 deaths and 113,294 deaths to 150,219 deaths, respectively. - Bernama