Malaysia's population this year is estimated at 32.6 million, from 32.4 million last year, according to the Statistics Department.

Chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin, in a statement today, said of the total population, 29.4 million are Malaysian citizens and 3.2 million are non-citizens.

On the sex ratio, there are 107 males per 100 females, with the male population at 16.8 million, while the female population is 15.8 million, he said.

He said the composition of the population age from 0 to 14 (young age) in 2019 dropped to 23.3 percent, from 23.8 percent last year, while the percentage for those aged 65 and above (old age) rose to 6.7 percent from 6.5 per cent last year.

Based on the National Senior Citizens’ Policy, the aging population occurs when the percentage of senior citizens or those aged 60 and above reached 15 percent of the total population, he added.

He said the statistics for this year showed a rise in the percentage of those aged 60 and above, at 10.3 percent, compared with 10 percent last year.

"Malaysia is expected to experience an aging population in 2030 with the percentage of people aged 60 and above at 15.3 per cent,” he added.

On the population composition based on states, Uzir said 20 percent of the total population are in Selangor, followed by Sabah (12 percent) and Johor (11.6 percent).

The bumiputera population recorded an increase of 0.2 percent to 69.3 percent, from 69.1 percent in 2018, while the Chinese ethnic dropped to 22.8 percent from 23 per cent and the Indian and others remained at 6.9 percent and one percent, respectively, he added.

- Bernama