Malaysia Records 12 Ageing States In 2025 As Elderly Population Rises

Barnama

2 days ago

PUTRAJAYA, July 31 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's ageing trend continues, with 12 states now categorised as ageing, according to the Current Population Estimates Malaysia 2025 released by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) today.
Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said a state is considered to have reached ageing status when individuals aged 65 and above comprise more than seven per cent of its total population.
Melaka has reached an ageing population rate of 7.3 per cent, while both Pahang and the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur recorded 7.1 per cent each, he said.
'Perak remains as the leading state with the highest percentage of elderly population at 10.3 per cent,' he said in a statement here today.
He also said that five states outpaced the national growth rate of 0.5 per cent, namely Terengganu at 1.2 per cent, Kelantan (one per cent), and Pahang, Selangor and Melaka each at 0.6 per cent.
'The three states with the highest population percentage in 2025 are Selangor with 21.6 per cent, followed by Johor (12.3 per cent and Sabah (11 per cent). On the opposite end, the Federal Territories of Labuan and Putrajaya recorded the lowest population percentage at 0.3 per cent and 0.4 per cent respectively,' he added.
Mohd Uzir said Malaysia's total population in 2025 is estimated at 34.2 million as compared to 34.1 million in 2024 with a growth rate of 0.5 per cent.
He said the population of citizens increased from 30.7 million in 2024 to 30.9 million in 2025 with the growth rate lowering from 0.7 per cent to 0.6 per cent, and in contrast, the non-citizen population recorded a sharp decline in growth from 13.6 per cent in 2024 to -0.5 per cent last year.
He said the percentage of the population aged 65 years and over increased from 7.6 per cent to eight per cent over the same period, while the young age group aged 0–14 years declined from 22.2 per cent to 21.6 per cent.