PETALING JAYA: While 49 babies were born every hour in the first quarter of this year, the country is still behind last year’s figures in terms of overall number of live births.
Statistics Department Malaysia (DOSM) chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the number of live births recorded a decrease of 9.4% or 106,386 births as compared to 117,413 births in the first quarter of 2023.
“On average, one baby was born per minute, 49 babies born per hour and 1,182 babies born per day in the first quarter 2024,” he said in a newly released report on Demographic Statistics that presents statistics of live births, deaths and population in the first quarter 2024 issued yesterday.
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Mohd Uzir said male babies outnumbered female babies with 54,747 births versus 51,639 births for the latter.
“Selangor recorded the highest live births of 19,951 at 18.8% while Labuan recorded the lowest at 323 births or 0.3%,” he said.
Malays formed the majority of live births at 68.8% or 73,136 in the first quarter, up from 67.6% in the same period last year.
He said other bumiputra live births also increased to 12.7%, compared to 12.6% in the same period last year.
Uzir said the number of live births recorded for Chinese and Indians decreased to 8.8% and 3.7%, respectively, compared to 9.7% and 4.3% last year.
On the age of mothers, those in the 30 to 39 year age group formed the majority at 52.5% or 55,864, followed by the 20-29 year old age group at 40.0%, while those aged above 40 came in at 6%.
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Young mothers, or those aged below 20, came in at 1.5%.
Mohd Uzir said the nation saw a slight increase of overall population this year to 34 million, up by 2.3%, compared to 33.2 million in the same period last year.
The country’s male population also increased to 17.8 million this year from 17.4 million in the first quarter 2023, while the female population rose to 16.1 million from 15.8 million.
“The overall sex ratio of the population was 111 males per 100 females, while sex ratio for citizens was 103 males per 100 females,” Mohd Uzir said.
On the racial breakdown, Mohd Uzir said the Malays accounted for 57.9 % or 17.7 million of the population, a slight uptick compared to 17.6 million within the same period last year.
Chinese, other bumiputra and Indians remained at 22.6%; 12.2% and 6.6% respectively.
The share of other bumiputras was contributed by Sabahan bumiputras such as Kadazan/Dusun (2.1%), followed by Bajau (1.8%) and Murut (0.3%), while Sarawak bumiputra consisted of the Iban (2.4%), Bidayuh (0.7%) and Melanau (0.4%).
At the same time, Mohd Uzir said the population aged between two to 14-years-old increased to 7.7 million this year.
He added that the population covering those ages between 15 to 64 also increased to 23.8 million, while the segment aged 65 and above remained unchanged at 2.5 million.
On the number of deaths this year, Mohd Uzir said there has been a decrease of 1.5% or 47,964 fatalities, compared to the first quarter of 2023 at 48,693.
However, death among the Chinese group increased to 27% as compared to 26.1% in the first quarter 2023.
“In the first quarter 2024, Malays accounted for 51.4% or 24,667 deaths from the total, while the deaths for Indians remained unchanged at 8.5%.
“The total deaths for other bumiputra decreased to 10.4% in the first quarter of 2024, against 10.8% within the same period last year,” he said.
Selangor recorded the highest number of deaths, with 7,730 deaths (16.1%), while Putrajaya recorded the lowest with 68 deaths, or 0.1%.
“On average, one death is recorded every two minutes, or 22 deaths per hour, giving 533 deaths per day in the first quarter of 2024.
“The number of deaths recorded for males was 27,434, while 20,530 was seen for females,” he said, adding that the majority of deaths were among those aged 60 and above, at 34,067 deaths (71.0%), followed by the 41-59 age group at 19.8%, the 15-40 group at 7%, while those aged 14 years and younger contributed 2.2%.
