Overview

INTRODUCTION

Children Statistics, Malaysia, 2023 presents selected statistics on population, health, education, child protection and children involved in crime. These statistics are among the indicators used in measuring the children’s quality of life and well-being in accordance with the concepts and guidelines recommended by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

POPULATION

Based on the population estimates for 2023, the number of children under 18 years of age (under-18) is estimated at 9.13 million, covering 27.4 per cent of Malaysia's total population of 33.38 million. The number of boys and girls under-18 are 4.72 million and 4.42 million respectively.

Meanwhile, the composition of children under 5 years of age (under-5) in 2023 is 2.35 million with 1.21 million boys and 1.14 million girls. This age group covers 25.7 per cent of the total number of children in Malaysia.

Table 1: Population by age group and sex, Malaysia, 2022 and 2023^p 

Notes:

^p Preliminary

Refers to the mid-year current population estimates

The total may differ due to rounding

Health

The malnutrition indicators reported in this publication are based on children under-5 who attended health facilities. At national level, children under-5 who are severely malnourished increased marginally to 0.3 per cent in 2022 as compared to 2021 (0.2%). Children under-5 who are moderately malnourished in Malaysia increased by 0.1 percentage points to 1.4 per cent in 2022 as compared to 2021 (1.3%).  

Table 2: Children under-5 with moderate and severe malnutrition by state,
Malaysia, 2021 and 2022

Note: Based on children under-5 who attended health facilities (new attendance)

Source: Ministry of Health Malaysia

EDUCATION

The number of pupils in government and government-aided schools in 2022 were 4,962.9 thousand, increased by 0.6 per cent from 4,934.0 thousand in 2021. This increase is mainly due to an increase of 25.8 thousand pupils (2.1%) at the lower secondary level as compared to the previous year. At the same time, primary level enrolment increased by 3.8 thousand to 2,770.0 thousand as compared to 2,766.2 thousand in 2021.

Table 3: Number of pupils in government and government-aided schools by level of education,
Malaysia, 2021 and 2022

Source: Ministry of Education Malaysia            

CHILD PROTECTION

The number of children in need of care and protection in 2022 increased by 10.2 per cent to 6,770 persons as compared to 6,144 persons in 2021. There were more girls in need of care and protection recording 4,303 persons as compared to boys (2,467 persons) in 2022.

Exhibit 1: Number of children in need of care and protection by sex,
Malaysia, 2021 and 2022

Source: Department of Social Welfare     

CHILDREN INVOLVED IN CRIME

The number of children involved in crime in 2022 recorded a decrease of 12.8 per cent which is 3,013 cases as compared to 3,457 cases in 2021. The composition of children involved in crime are Bumiputera (82.2%), Chinese (8.8%), Indians (4.9%) and Others (4.1%).

Note: ¹Include non-citizens

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Baharudin Mohamad

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