4,000 more boys born in Q3 2019 than girls

PETALING JAYA: There were more boys than girls born in the third quarter of this year with 64,028 recorded male births compared to 60,122 females, the Department of Statistics revealed.

However, overall births shrunk by 3% compared to the third quarter of last year.

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said 124,150 live births were recorded in the third quarter of this year compared with 127,956 in the same period last year.

Selangor remained the state with the most births, recording 24,246, while the lowest birth rate was recorded in Labuan with 427, he said.

In a statement, he said the country’s population was estimated to have increased by 0.6% in the third quarter of 2019 with 32.63 million people living in Malaysia compared with 32.43 million in the same period last year.

About 90.3% of the population was made up of citizens.

The statement also noted that the country’s male population increased to 16.85 million this period compared with 16.74 million in the last period while women now number about 15.78 million compared with 15.69 million last year.

However, the sex ratio remained at 107 males to 100 females.

The country is also fast becoming an ageing nation with the number of people over 65 years increasing from 2.12 million in the third quarter of 2018 to 2.21 in the same period this year.

The number of those aged between 15 and 64 also went up from 22.64 million to 22.85 million while people in the younger age bracket, aged from 0 to 14, decreased from 7.68 million to 7.57 million.

The country’s death rate also decreased by 0.9% in the third quarter of 2019 with 41,772 deaths recorded compared with 42,156 in the same period last year.