DURING this year’s Chinese New Year, the Statistics Department released live birth data of Malaysians for Q1 to Q3 of 2024. I took my holiday time to look into the stats, which I found quite shocking!
Q1 (2023): 117,413
Q1 (2024): 106,386
Dropped: 11,027 (-9.4%)
Q2 (2023): 112,197
Q2 (2024): 100,732
Dropped: 11,465 (-10.2%)
Q3 2023): 114,764
Q3 (2024): 100,645
Dropped: 14,119 (-12.3%)
I was quite shocked by the statistics. Generally, Malaysians of all ethnicities saw a big drop in live births. This is not a good sign because the total fertility rate (TFR) was only 1.7 in 2023 (the replacement rate is 2.1). That means the rate will likely drop further in 2024.
This is alarming because the drop is across all ethnicities and the drop is more than 10%. Fewer babies mean less population. This has huge implications for Malaysia in terms of population, productivity, social-economy and all aspects.
2024 was also an auspicious year for the Chinese as it was the Dragon Year. Usually, Dragon Years will see a spike in newborn babies because Chinese families believe Dragon babies will bring good luck.
However, the 2024 Dragon Year did not see a spike. Instead, Chinese live birth rates dropped further.
Q1 (2023): 11,434
Q1 (2024): 9,372
Dropped: 2,062 (-18%)
Q2 (2023): 11,077
Q2 (2024): 9,786
Dropped: 11,465 (-11.7%)
Q3 2023): 11,162
Q3 (2024): 10,427
Dropped: 14,119 (-6.6%)
The TFR for Chinese Malaysians in 2023 was only 0.8. This huge drop, especially on a Dragon Year, sets off all the alarms for the Chinese Malaysian Community.
American Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently declared that Singaporeans are going extinct because Singapore’s TFR was only 0.97. Meanwhile, Malaysian Chinese TFR is worse!
But Elon Musk is famous for his outrageous comments. Personally, I don’t believe Chinese Malaysians will go extinct but it is definitely an issue that has to be taken seriously.
To conclude, Malaysian TFR is dropping fast. It affects all races and will affect our country. We as a nation must come together to find solutions to reverse the trend. – February 11, 2025
Sim Tze Tzin is Pakatan Harapan’s Bayan Baru MP and former deputy agriculture minister