by AZALEA AZUAR / Pic by BERNAMA

MALAYSIA’S total population in 2022 has increased by 0.2% to an estimated 32.7 million from 32.6 million in 2021.

Malaysia’s chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin (picture) said the population growth rate has dropped due to the lower number of non-citizens from 2.6 million (2021) to 2.4 million (2022).

“This is in line with the restriction on international travel by countries during the spread of Covid-19 worldwide in 2020 and 2021.

“The citizens’ population increased from 30 million in 2021 to 30.2 million in 2022 with the growth rate decreasing from 0.8% to 0.7% over the same period,” he said in a statement.

Due to the drop in fertility rate and international net migration and rising deaths caused by ageing, even other countries have observed a slower population growth rate which are Singapore (-0.3%), Australia (1.3%), the UK (0.4%), Japan (-0.3%), New Zealand (1.3%).

Malaysia’s citizens population consists of 92.9% (an increase in 0.5%) while the non-citizens have continued to decline from 7.9% to 7.4% in 2022.

There are more males (17 million) than females (15.7 million), due to the higher number of male non-citizens.

The population between the ages of 0 to 14 years (young age) in 2022 fell 23.2% this year compared to 23.6% in 2021, the population between the ages of 15 to 64 years (working age) rose from 69.4% in 2021 to 69.5% in 2022 whereas the 65 and over (old age) group has recorded an increase from 7% to 7.3%.

Based on the United Nations definition, Malaysia has become an ageing society while the median age also increased from 30.1 years in 2021 to 30.4 years this year.

“Of the 30.2 million citizens, the composition of Bumiputera increased by 0.3% to 69.9% in 2022 compared to 69.6% in 2021.

“However, the composition of the Chinese and Indian population decreased to 22.8% (2021: 23%) and 6.6% (2021: 6.7%) respectively while Other races remained at 0.7%.”

The three states Selangor (21.6%), Johor (12.3%) and Sabah (10.4%) consist of the highest population composition of the year, while the lowest population composition was given to Labuan (0.3%) and Putrajaya (0.4%).

“However, Putrajaya recorded the highest annual population growth rate for the period 2021-2022 which is 4.3%. For the first time, the population of Melaka surpassed the 1 million mark in 2021,” said Mohd Uzir.

The highest number of young people was recorded in Putrajaya (37.4%) while the highest number of working age population goes to Sabah (65.1%).

Malaysia’s average population density is 99 people per sq km whereby Kuala Lumpur has the highest population density with 8,045 people per sq km, followed by Putrajaya (2,418) and Penang (1,656) while Sarawak has the lowest population density (20), followed by Pahang (45) and Sabah (46).