M'sia's live births drop 10.2pct in second quarter of 2024

The country’s live birth rate decreased by 10.2 percent to 100,732 in the second quarter of 2024.

This is in comparison to 112,197 births in the same period last year, the Demographic Statistics released by the Statistics Department showed.

Chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin said male babies outnumbered females at 51,759 to 48,973 births.

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

Highest in Selangor

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

Uzir said Malays constituted 67.4 percent, or 67,859, of the total live births in the second quarter of 2024, compared to 67.1 percent in the same period last year.

He noted that the number of live births for the Chinese and Indians decreased to 9.7 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively, compared to 9.9 percent and 4.4 percent in the second quarter of 2023.

Uzir said other bumiputera live births increased to 12.9 percent, up from 12.5 percent in the same period of the previous year.

He also said 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.

Population increase

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

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

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

Uzir said 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

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