A recent census revealed that the size of an average Malaysian household has shrunk over the last 10 years.
The survey by the Department of Statistics – the 2020 Malaysia Population and Housing found that the average household dropped from 4.3 persons in 2010 to 3.8 persons in 2020.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said among the lowest average household sizes were recorded in Penang and Kuala Lumpur with 3.5 persons.
The two states with the highest average household sizes were Sabah and Kelantan with 4.7 and 4.9 persons respectively.
“This means that the number of children in one house in Kelantan is many compared to other states,” he told reporters here today.
He did not rule out the cost of living may affect the average household size in Kuala Lumpur and Penang as compared to the situation in Kelantan and Sabah.
“Cost of living maybe among the factors (which contributed to the low average household size in Penang and Kuala Lumpur).
“We could not do a complete analysis. Generally, if we are residing in the city such as Kuala Lumpur, it will be difficult to stay in an apartment with only two bedrooms if we have many children,” he said.
Meanwhile, the census also revealed that Malaysia continued to register a declining trend in the percentage of population aged 14 years old and below while the number of those in the old age category continued with an upward trend over the past 10 years.
The percentage of population aged 14 and below or categorised as young age dropped to 24 per cent in 2020 compared to 27.6 per cent in 2010, while the percentage of population aged 60 and above increased from eight per cent or two million people in 2010 to 10.4 per cent or 3.4 million people in 2020.
The nation’s population stood at 32.4 million as of 2020 with the compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.7 per cent over a period of 10 years.
