Population ageing in Malaysia

UNFPA Thailand, in collaboration with the Institute of Gerontology, University of Kuala Lumpur, recently released “Population Ageing in Malaysia – Active Ageing, Productive Living”, a bilingual brochure (English/Bahasa Malaysia) presenting facts and figures about the process of population ageing in the developing country.

According to the brochure, available online at http://cst.bangkok.unfpa.org/, Malaysia is in the third stage of the demographic transition, in which the “population is ageing due to a steady decline in its birth rate”.

“The number of older persons in Malaysia has doubled in the past two decades to almost 1.4 million in 2000. By 2020, this number is expected to grow to more than 3.4 million. Malaysia is currently in a demographic window where there is a rapid decline in the proportion of the young population (0-14 years) and a low proportion of older population (65 years and over), as compared to the working age population (15-64 years).