PUTRAJAYA – Children comprise 28.3% of Malaysia’s population of 32.7 million in 2020, or a drop of 78,100 to 9.24 million from 9.32 million in the previous year, according to the Children Statistics Malaysia 2020 report released today.
4.77 million boys and 4.47 million girls were recorded in 2020.
“This decrease is significant for the age groups 0 to 4 years and 13 to 17 years. For the age group of 0 to 4 years, the decline is 1.5% (37,800),” chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said, commenting on the publication.
“This is due to the decrease in the number of live births to 488,000 in 2019 as compared to 502,000 in the previous year. Meanwhile, children in the age group of 13 to 17 years decreased by 1.5% (41,600),” he said in a statement today.
In terms of health, Uzir said all immunisation coverage for infants in 2019, namely bacillus calmette-guerin, poliomyelitis; diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis; haemophilus influenza type b and hepatitis B, has exceeded 95% and reached the national immunisation coverage target.
He said that to meet the needs of childcare, the number of registered childcare centres increased 11.2% to 4,903 in 2019, with the highest increase recorded in Selangor (19.7%), followed by Perlis (19%) and Penang (16.5%).
“This was in line with the incline in the number of female employed people to 5.87 million in 2019,” he said, adding that the involvement of females in the employment sector had prompted them to send their children to childcare centres.
In 2020, he said, the operations of childcare centres were affected because caregivers found it difficult to send children to such centres due to the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Uzir said enrolment in government and government-aided schools inclined by 9,500 from 4.84 million to 4.85 million in 2019, and the increase was contributed by pre-school (0.7%) and primary school (1.3%) levels of education.
“For private schools, the increase in enrolment can be seen at kindergartens and primary schools at 3,000 and 200 respectively in 2019 as compared with the previous year,” he said.
Based on the Social Welfare Department’s records, Uzir said the number of new cases of disabled children in 2019 was 20,321, with the age group of 6 to 12 years making up the biggest group at 50.5%.
Uzir said the number of children under 18 years involved in crime decreased by 8.7% from 5,294 cases in 2018 to 4,833 cases in 2019. – Bernama, November 24, 2020
