Malaysia Demographics Profile 2009

Population

25,715,819 (July 2009 est.)

Age structure

0-14 years: 31.4% (male 4,153,621/female 3,914,962)
15-64 years: 63.6% (male 8,210,373/female 8,143,043)
65 years and over: 5% (male 569,245/female 724,575) (2009 est.)

Median age

total: 24.9 years
male: 24.3 years
female: 25.6 years (2009 est.)

Population growth rate

1.723% (2009 est.)

Birth rate

22.24 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)

Death rate

5.02 deaths/1,000 population (July 2009 est.)

Net migration rate

NA
note: does not reflect net flow of an unknown number of illegal immigrants from other countries in the region (2009 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 70% of total population (2008)
rate of urbanization: 3% annual rate of change (2005-10 est.)

Sex ratio

at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2009 est.)

Infant mortality rate

total: 15.87 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 18.32 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 13.24 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)

Life expectancy at birth

total population: 73.29 years
male: 70.56 years
female: 76.21 years (2009 est.)

Total fertility rate

2.95 children born/woman (2009 est.)

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate

0.5% (2007 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS

80,000 (2007 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths

3,900 (2007 est.)

Major infectious diseases

degree of risk: high
food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea
vectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malaria
note: highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza has been identified in this country; it poses a negligible risk with extremely rare cases possible among US citizens who have close contact with birds (2009)

Nationality

noun: Malaysian(s)
adjective: Malaysian

Ethnic groups

Malay 50.4%, Chinese 23.7%, indigenous 11%, Indian 7.1%, others 7.8% (2004 est.)

Religions

Muslim 60.4%, Buddhist 19.2%, Christian 9.1%, Hindu 6.3%, Confucianism, Taoism, other traditional Chinese religions 2.6%, other or unknown 1.5%, none 0.8% (2000 census)

Languages

Bahasa Malaysia (official), English, Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka, Hainan, Foochow), Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Panjabi, Thai
note: in East Malaysia there are several indigenous languages; most widely spoken are Iban and Kadazan

Literacy

definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 88.7%
male: 92%
female: 85.4% (2000 census)

School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)

total: 13 years
male: 12 years
female: 13 years (2005)

Education expenditures

6.2% of GDP (2004)