The statistics department said this corresponds with the average age of couples getting married, which has increased from 24.7 years (1990) to 28.9 in 2022, Bernama reported.

It said this affected fertility levels with women choosing to marry later to further their education or focus on their career first.

“If the fertility rate continues on a downtrend, the size of a Malaysian family will also shrink in future, and based on the findings of the Malaysian Census 2020, the average size of a household in Malaysia will decline from 5.5 people in 1970 to 3.9 people in 2020.

“This will result in a reduction of the Malaysian population,” it said.

Nonetheless, the department acknowledged that this was in line with global trends.

While the global population has reached 8.1 billion in 2024 compared with just one billion in 1800, this growth has been slowing down since 1950 due to lower fertility rates.

“The total fertility rate (TFR) at the global level was 2.3 children for every woman in 2022, whereas Malaysia’s TFR stood at 1.6 children,” it said.

Among the states, Terengganu recorded the highest crude birth rate per 1,000 people in the country at 21.3 births, while Kuala Lumpur was the lowest with 10.1 births.

The average life expectancy for babies born in 2023 stood at 74.8 years, a significant improvement compared with 63.6 for those born in 1970.

By state, Selangor had the highest life expectancy at 78.1 years while Terengganu had the lowest at 71.2 years.