In its demographic statistics report released today, the department of statistics said there were 65,584 deaths in Q3 compared with 40,858 in the same period last year.

A total of 37,085 men and 28,499 women died in the quarter.

Chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the number of deaths in Q3 was the highest since the quarterly series was introduced in 2017.

“Selangor recorded the highest number of deaths at 13,926 (21.2%) while Putrajaya recorded the lowest at 90 (0.1%),” he said.

He said Covid-19 deaths were the leading cause of the rise in the number of deaths, accounting for 21,165 (32.3 %) of the total.

Meanwhile, the number of live births decreased by 0.5% (120,147 births) compared with the third quarter of 2020 (120,725 births), the department said.

Male newborns outnumbered female babies, by 61,613 to 58,534.

Uzir also noted that Selangor had the most live births (19.1%), with 22,956 births, while Labuan had the fewest (430 or 0.4%).

The reduction in births was consistent with other nations such as the US, South Korea, the UK, France and Spain.

“Based on the current population estimates, Malaysia’s population in the third quarter of 2021 is estimated at 32.67 million, an increase of 0.2% compared with the third quarter 2020 (32.6 million).

The total population comprised 30.01 million (91.9%) citizens and 2.65 million (8.1%) non-citizens based on the Population and Housing Census 2010, he said.

Uzir said the three states with the largest populations in the third quarter of 2021 were Selangor (20.1%), Sabah (11.7%) and Johor (11.6%).

Labuan and Putrajaya had the lowest populations at 0.3% and 0.4%, respectively.