PUTRAJAYA: The Statistics Department (DOSM) released a report by MyCensus 2020: Population Well-Being (Social Relations) on Thursday (Sept 21) claiming that 11.8 million people in Malaysia aged 15 and over used mobile data to access the internet.
The seven means of internet access listed in MyCensus 2020 are home, workplace, another person's home, facilities with free internet access, community facilities with internet, education centres and mobile data.
Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the findings indicated that home internet access was the second most preferred among Malaysians with a total of 5.3 million users, followed by workplaces (2.6 million persons), free internet access facilities (800,000 persons), educational centres (700,000 persons), other people's homes (500,000 persons) and community internet access facilities (400,000 persons).
"Males were primarily the main users of internet access by mobile data (6.1 million persons), facilities with free internet access (400,000 persons), another person’s home (300,000 persons) and community facilities with internet access (200,000 persons).
"Meanwhile, females were higher than males in the home internet access (2.7 million persons) and education centres (400,000 persons)," he said.
MyCensus 2020: Population Well-Being (Social Relations) is the second volume of the Population Well-Being publication series after Fitness which was released last June.
This publication features statistics on population aged 15 years and above in four segments namely social media account users; access to the internet; eating together within a week; and face-to-face interaction with neighbours within a month.
The findings are purely based on response from respondents. Respondents can choose multiple answers for all segments with exception for interaction with neighbours that allow only one answer.
Mohd Uzir said the findings indicated that among the six social media platforms, namely Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter), LinkedIn and Telegram, WhatsApp had the most users with 86.5% or 13.8 million persons out of the 16 million persons that responded in this survey.
The reported number of users are based on the number of population, irrespective of the presence of multiple social media accounts held by individuals.
He said 12.3 million persons were reported to be using Facebook, followed by Instagram (6.3 million persons), Telegram (3.7 million persons), X (formerly known as Twitter) (1.9 million persons) and LinkedIn (800,000 persons) and others (200,000 persons).
Under the Eating Together segment, Mohd Uzir said a total of 13.3 million population have responded and its refers to number of population aged 15 years and over that eat together as a family or with household members in a week during mealtime of breakfast, coffee break, lunch, hi-tea, dinner and supper.
He said from 13.3 million respondents, 81.9% or 10.9 million respondents eat together during dinner, while two-thirds or 73.4% had breakfast and 67.4% lunch together.
He said a lower percentage of respondents eat together during hi-tea (19.4%), coffee-break (15.3%) and supper (5.9%).
"In terms of frequency, more than 50% of respondents eat together five to seven times a week during breakfast (60.3%), lunch (57.1%) and dinner (75.9%).
"In general, more females eat together during dinner (5.5 million persons), breakfast (4.9 million persons), lunch (4.6 million persons), coffee break (1.1 million persons) and hi-tea (1.4 million persons). On the other hand, more males eat together during supper (398,234 persons)," he said.
On another note, the Chief Statistician said a total of 13.8 million from 14.8 million respondents engaged in face-to-face interaction with neighbours in a month, while 958,808 persons never had any face-to-face interaction.
He said people in this country have greater neighbourliness as two-fifths or 41.4% engaged in face-to-face interaction with neighbours on a daily basis, 41.5% at least once a week and 10.6% at least once a month.
"Nevertheless, 6.5% or 960,000 from 13.8 million respondents admitted that they never had any interaction with neighbours in a month.
"Population aged 15 to 64 years interact with neighbours the most at least once a week (41.9%), while those aged 65 years and over exchanged greetings largely on a daily basis (46.7%)," he said. - Bernama
