Page 67 - AEI Insights 2019 - Vol. 5, Issue 1

Ziegenhain, 2019

Figure 8: Population Pyramids of Malaysia, Source: Rabi (2017: 7).

As already mentioned several times above, the proportion of older people will rise significantly
in Malaysia. Particularly the percentage of people above 80 years will more than triple between
2015 and 2040.

Population above 65 years Population above 80 years
1990 3.68 0.49

2015 5.86 0.83
2040 12.40 2.60

Table 14: Proportion of Old People in Malaysia, Data from Database Global Political Demography v1_20171006

As a rather well-developed and comparatively rich country Malaysia attracts a number of
labour migrants from nearly all neighbouring countries. This particularly refers to Indonesia,
but also to the Philippines and more distant countries such as Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal,
China and India.
Official figures are difficult to obtain, because a high number of migrants is not officially
registered. However it is estimated that at least 2.5 million labour migrants (among them more
than 1 million from Indonesia) are currently in Malaysia. The UN predicts that there will be
more migration to Malaysia in the future (see table 15) which will add to the population growth
in the country.

1990-95 298.812
2015-20 250.000

2040-45 250.000
Table 15: Net Migration in Malaysia, Data from Database Global Political Demography v1_20171006

As in many other parts of the world, urbanisation also took place in Malaysia and transformed
the population quite considerably in the last 50 years. In 1960 only 26.6 percent of Malaysians

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