PETALING JAYA: Rising cost of living, the burden of dual careers, and the pursuit of higher education among women are some of the major reasons why Malaysians are choosing to delay starting families, say experts.
Putra Business School economist Assoc Prof Dr Ida Yasin said the trend is most pronounced in urban centres, where financial strain and lack of support infrastructure have discouraged many from having children or expanding their families.
“The overall cost of having children is high, especially in cities, and this has discouraged parents from having more children.
“In urban areas, both parents are often working, and this makes it more difficult to raise multiple children as it becomes costlier to do so,” she said when contacted yesterday.
Ida added that an increasing number of women are pursuing tertiary education and only start considering marriage and children later in life. “Many women are now completing their education at around the age of 23 or 24. By the time they establish their careers, they tend to delay marriage and childbearing,” she said.
The Star Interactive reported that the number of live births in the country has fallen to the lowest level ever recorded based on the Statistics Department (DOSM) report, a decline of 11.5% to 93,500.
In its quarterly population report released on May 14, DOSM said the number of live births recorded a decrease of 11.5% to 93,500 births as compared to 105,613 births in the first quarter of 2024.
The Demographic Statistics Malaysia First Quarter 2025 report revealed that the majority of mothers who gave birth in the first quarter of this year were in the 30- to 39-year-old age group, representing 49,816 (53.3%) of births recorded.
The second biggest group of mothers were aged 20-29 years (39.3%), followed by 40 years and over (6.0%) and less than 20 years (1.4%), while three births were recorded to mothers aged 55 years and above. According to the latest demographic data, Dr Ida said more than half of the mothers who gave birth in the first quarter of this year were aged between 30 and 39, with fewer births among women aged 20 to 29 compared to previous years.
“This shows that more people are delaying childbirth and choosing to start their families later,” she said.
Ida also said higher birth rates have been recorded in states where fewer women participate in the workforce.
“In states where the percentage of working women is lower, families are able to afford to have more children,” she said.
In September last year, DOSM revealed that Terengganu, Kelantan and Pahang are the only states still producing enough babies to replenish their respective populations amid a rapid decline in Malaysia’s fertility rates.
According to the Statistics Department, 13 states and federal territories have total fertility rates (TFRs) that have dropped below the replacement level of 2.1 babies for every female aged 15 to 49 years.
To address the issue, Dr Ida urged the public and private sectors to improve facilities for working mothers, particularly in the form of workplace childcare centres.
“There are not many childcare centres located on work premises. In other countries, even when private facilities are limited, their governments or state authorities provide large childcare centres that are government-owned.
“This is what city centres in Malaysia need to do to accommodate working mothers. The impact will only be visible in the long term, over the next 10 years, not in just two or three years. Childcare centres should be subsidised to make them more accessible,” she said.
Director of MBA programmes at Putra Business School Professor Dr Ahmed Razman Abdul Latiff said the root cause of the issue lies in the country’s economic structure and income levels.
“The possible causes of this phenomenon include the rising cost of living and stagnating salaries, which result in households having very little disposable income, thereby delaying married couples’ decisions to have children.”
Ahmed Razman noted that in the few states where birth rates remain higher, this can be attributed to families having a more comfortable level of disposable income.
“The disposable income for households in these three states is comfortable enough for them to start families of their own,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dr Choong Sim Poey, founding member and hotline coordinator of the Reproductive Rights Advocacy Alliance Malaysia (RRAAM), stressed that decisions on whether or not to have children must remain entirely in the hands of women.
“RRAAM’s principle in promoting women’s reproductive rights is that the decision whether or not to have a baby is a woman’s choice.
“Governments should not be allowed to use women as tools to solve a population crisis,” he said.
While many governments around the world have introduced incentives such as financial aid and improved childcare support to boost birth rates, Dr Choong cautioned against approaches that compromise women’s rights or place undue pressure on them.
He elaborated that supporting better childcare facilities is widely used as an incentive.
