BANGI – The total fertility rate (TFR) of women of reproductive age in Malaysia has continued to decline over the past five decades, and if this trend continues, it is expected that the annual population growth will continue to decline until it reaches 0.7% in 2050.
Women, Family, and Community Development Ministry Secretary-General Datuk Maziah Che Yusoff said the fertility rate in Malaysia dropped sharply from 6.7 births per woman in 1957 to four in 1980, three in 2000, 2.1 in 2010, and 1.7 in 2021.
“Among the main factors contributing to the decline are delayed marriages, which causes reproductive periods to be shorter; the tendency towards small families for various reasons such as financial capability; and infertility problems due to health reasons.
“This decrease in the fertility rate will simultaneously accelerate the ageing process of the Malaysian population, and it is expected that 15% of the population will be 60 years old and above in 2030,” she said in an online speech in conjunction with the 2022 National Population Conference here today.
TFR refers to the average number of children that will be born to a woman who survives until the end of her reproductive age between 15 and 49 years.
Maziah said if the fertility rate continues to drop and no intervention is made to deal with this situation, the Malaysian population will reach its maximum population of 46 million in 2071 before experiencing population shrinkage in 2072, which will result in a more serious shortage of manpower, thus affecting the development of the country.
In the meantime, she said the government welcomes more research findings, especially in the field of population and family, to be used as input for evidence-based policy making and to develop effective intervention programmes. – Bernama, November 9, 2022
