INTERACTIVE: The numbers behind Malaysia’s singles population

Pedestrians near jalan Bukit Bintang in Kuala Lumpur —SHAARI CHEMAT /The Star

PETALING JAYA: Are more Malaysians saying “I don’t” to marriage and opting to remain single?

According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), the number of males and females aged 15 and above listed as “never married” has gone up from 3.08 million in 1970 to 8.39 million in 2020.

However, the percentage of single persons in relation to the country’s population has fallen, due to population growth over the years.

In 1970 for instance, 53.6% of the population aged 15 and above were single. The figure fell to 34.01% in 2020.

The country’s marital status figures are contained in a DOSM report titled Key Findings Population and Housing Census of Malaysia 2020.

The report lists the numbers and percentages of persons aged 15 and above in terms of marital status by dividing them into four categories.

The categories are never married, married, widowed and divorced/separated.

According to the report, Malaysia’s population stood at 10.44 million in 1970 and grew to 32.45 million in 2020.

The following is a closer look at the “never married” group in Malaysia:

More single males than females

The report states that more males opted for unmarried life compared to females.

In 2020, a total of 4.87mil males surveyed were single compared to 3.52mil females.

In terms of distribution, 10 states or federal territories have a bigger share of singles in their populations compared to the current national average of 34.01%.

Pahang is tops with nearly half or 45.7% of its population aged 15 and above categorised as single.

Kelantan is second (40.2%), followed by Perlis (38.8%), Terengganu (37.8%) and Johor (36.8%).

Negeri Sembilan meanwhile has the smallest share of singles at 27%.

Regional situation

In comparison against Malaysia's fellow Asean countries, Brunei came up tops in the region as the country with the highest percentage of single people aged 15, according to the United Nations (UN) Demographic Statistics Database.

Over 38% of Brunei’s population was listed as never married in 2021.

In the UN’s dataset, Malaysia’s single population ranked second with Cambodia third at 32.7%.

Singapore is relatively in the middle of the pack with 315,305 people in the never-married group per one million population.

Vietnam and Indonesia meanwhile have the lowest percentage of single people in the region, according to the UN’s figures.

In both countries, less than 23% of its population aged 15 years and above are never married, with Indonesia at 22.9% and Vietnam at 22.5%.