• The number of live births was 439,744 births in 2021, a decrease of 6.7 per cent (31,760 births) as compared to 471,504 births in 2020. This was the highest decrease in a decade. The CBR declined from 14.5 (2020) to 13.5 (2021) per thousand population.
• Total Fertility Rate (TFR) is a standard demographic indicator used to estimate the average number of children that a woman would have over her childbearing age (15–49 years). Over the last five decades, fertility measured by TFR declined significantly from 4.9 children per woman of childbearing age in 1970 to 1.7 in 2021. For the period of 2011 to 2021, the TFR for all major ethnic groups in Malaysia has shown a declining trend. TFR for all ethnic except Malay was below replacement level. The highest TFR was recorded by the Malay with 2.2 babies. Meanwhile, Chinese recorded the lowest TFR of 0.8 babies per woman aged 15-49 years.
• Mean age of mother at first live birth refers to the average age of mothers who delivered their first child. The mean age of mother at first live birth for 2021 increased to 27.9 years from 27.3 years in 2011.
• The number of deaths in 2021 was 224,569 deaths, increased 34.5 per cent (57,599 deaths) as compared to 166,970 deaths in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic. The Crude Death Rate (CDR) also recorded an increase from 5.1 (2020) to 6.9 (2021) deaths per thousand population.
• All age groups recorded an increase in the number of deaths except aged 0-14 which decreased from 4,288 deaths to 4,115 deaths in 2021. The number of deaths for aged 41-59 years recorded the highest increase with 44.0 per cent from 36,318 (2020) deaths to 52,282 deaths in 2021. Besides that, the number of deaths for aged 15-40 years and 60 years and over also recorded an increase from 13,070 deaths to 17,953 deaths and 113,294 deaths to 150,219 deaths, respectively.

The full publication of the Vital Statistics, Malaysia, 2022 can be downloaded through  eStatistik portal.

Released by:

Department of Statistics Malaysia
13 October 2022

Contact person:

Baharudin Mohamad 
Public Relation Officer
Strategic Communication and International Division
Department of Statistics Malaysia
Tel : +603-8885 7942
Fax : +603-8888 9248
Email : baharudin[at]dosm.gov.my