Chief statistician Uzir Mahidin said male babies outnumbered females, with 213,919 males and 200,999 females recorded.

“The decrease in the number of live births has contributed to the decline in crude birth rate (CBR) from 13.6 births in 2023 to 12.2 births per 1,000 population in 2024.

“The sex ratio at birth recorded a decrease from 107.4 males in 2023 to 106.4 males for every 100 females in 2024,” Bernama reported him as saying.

Uzir said Malay births accounted for 65.7% (272,718) of the total live births in 2024, down from 67% (305,494) the previous year.

Chinese births rose slightly from 9.8% (44,818) to 10.8% (44,914), while Indian births declined from 4.4% (20,064) to 4.3% (17,914).

According to Uzir, all states recorded a decrease in CBR last year compared with 2023, with Terengganu posting the highest rate at 19.3 births per 1,000 population while Penang had the lowest at 10.1 births.

The total fertility rate also fell from 1.7 children per woman in 2023 to 1.6 in 2024.

The rate has remained below the replacement level of 2.1 since 2013, after staying above it between 1970 and 2012.

Uzir said Malaysia recorded 198,992 deaths in 2024, a 1% increase from 196,965 in 2023. The crude death rate edged down slightly from 5.9 to 5.8 deaths per 1,000 population.

Male deaths stood at 113,866, while female deaths totalled 85,126. The 70-74 age group recorded the highest number of deaths (24,513 or 12.3%), while the 5-9 age group recorded the lowest (412 or 0.2%).