PUTRAJAYA, Aug 13 — The country’s live birth rate decreased by 10.2 per cent to 100,732 in the second quarter (2Q), compared with 112,197 births in the same period last year, showed the Demographic Statistics released by the Statistics Department.
Chief statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said male babies outnumbered females 51,759 to 48,973.
He said the overall sex ratio was 106 males for every 100 females.
“On average, one baby was born every minute, 47 babies every hour, and 1,119 babies a day in the second quarter of 2024,” he said in a statement today.
Uzir said mothers aged between 30 and 39 years accounted for the highest number of live births, at 51,740, or 51.4 per cent, in 2Q, followed by mothers aged 20-29 at 41.5 per cent, those aged 40 and above at 5.4 per cent, and mothers aged under 20 at 1.8 per cent.
He said Selangor logged the highest number of live births at 19,320, while Labuan had the lowest at 324 births.
Uzir said Malays constituted 67.4 per cent, or 67,859, of total live births in 2Q, compared to 67.1 per cent in the same period last year.
He noted that the number of live births for the Chinese and Indians decreased to 9.7 per cent and 3.7 per cent, respectively, compared to 9.9 per cent and 4.4 per cent in 2Q 2023.
Uzir said that other bumiputra live births increased to 12.9 per cent, up from 12.5 per cent in the same period of the previous year.
He also said 48,460 deaths were recorded in 2Q, a decrease of 5.4 per cent, compared with 51,234 deaths in 2Q 2023.
Selangor recorded the highest number of deaths at 7,459, while Putrajaya had the lowest at 65.
Uzir said on average, one death was recorded every two minutes, 22 deaths every hour, and 538 deaths per day in 2Q.
He said Malaysia’s population increased by 1.9 per cent to 34.1 million in 2Q, compared with 33.4 million in the same period last year.
“The total population comprises 30.7 million citizens and 3.4 million non-citizens,” he said.
Uzir said the working-age population (15-64 years old) and the elderly population (65 and over) increased from 23.3 million and 2.5 million, respectively, to 23.9 million and 2.6 million in 2Q.
— Bernama
