Live births in Malaysia drop 10.2 per cent in second quarter of 2024

PUTRAJAYA - The country’s live birth rate decreased by 10.2 per cent to 100,732 in the second quarter of 2024, compared to 112,197 births in the same period last year, according to the Demographic Statistics released by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).

Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said male babies outnumbered females at 51,759 to 48,973 births.

He said that the overall gender 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 the second quarter of this year, followed by mothers aged 20-29 at 41.5 per cent, those aged 40 and above (5.4 per cent) and mothers under 20 years (1.8 per cent).

According to him, Selangor recorded the highest number of live births with 19,320, while Labuan had the lowest with 324 births.

Uzir said that Malays constituted 67.4 per cent, or 67,859, of the total live births in the second quarter of 2024, 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 the second quarter of 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 that a total of 48,460 deaths were recorded in the second quarter of 2024, which is a decrease of 5.4 per cent as compared to 51,234 deaths in the second quarter of last year.

Selangor recorded the highest number of deaths with 7,459 deaths, while Putrajaya had the lowest with 65 deaths.

Uzir said that, on average, one death was recorded every two minutes, 22 deaths every hour, and 538 deaths per day in the second quarter of 2024.

He said that Malaysia’s population increased by 1.9 per cent to 34.1 million in the second quarter of 2024, compared to 33.4 million in the same period of last year.

"The total population comprises 30.7 million citizens and 3.4 million non-citizens,” he said.

Uzir said that 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 the second quarter of 2024. - BERNAMA