Boys outnumber girls – Statistics Dept

PUTRAJAYA: In 2018, the composition of children under 18 years is 29.0 per cent or 9.4 million from the total population of 32.4 million, said Malaysia’s chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin.

He said in terms of gender, the number of male children stood at 4.85 million while females comprised 4.55 million persons.

Meanwhile, he said the composition of children below the age of five was 8.0 per cent or 2.6 million of the total population in Malaysia.

"The number of male children (1.34 million) is more than females (1.26 million persons)," he said in a statement yesterday.

In 2017, a total of 508.7 thousand births were registered where the number of males was 262.6 thousand and number of females was 246.1 thousand.

In terms of education in 2017, enrolment in government schools and government aided schools was 4,888.6 thousand people which dropped by 45 thousand people from 2016.

"The decline was largely due to a decrease in number of students by 28.2 thousand at the lower secondary level and 15 thousand at the upper secondary level compared to 2016.

Mohd Uzir said 2017 enrolment at private kindergartens, primary schools and secondary schools showed an increase to 364.0 (2016: 332.6), 38.5 (2016: 36.9) and 113.8 (2016: 109.9) respectively.

Meanwhile, children’s involvement in crime last year was 5.4 thousand persons which involved 5.1 thousand males and 0.3 thousand females. - Bernama