Population
01
34.4 million of us.
DOSM's estimate for 2026 — read live from the official open-data API, and grown +0.5% in a year. Who we are, where we live, and how the country is changing shape.
Population · 2026
34.4M
annual mid-year estimate, including non-citizens
Growth in a year
+0.5%
2025 → 2026, national estimate
Under 15
21.2%
the base of the pyramid, and shrinking
65 and over
8.4%
up from 6.0% in 2016
Official latestAnnual official estimates, not a live count — the label matters. DOSM's quarterly bulletin runs slightly ahead of the annual series; both are shown with their periods.
DOSM — population_malaysia & population_state (annual mid-year estimates), via the OpenDOSM / data.gov.my open API · retrieved 2026-10-12 23:07 UTC
Official DOSM estimates projected from Census 2020, including non-citizens. National series 1970–2026; state series 2020–2023. Values are annual estimates, not a live count.
The long view
02
Three countries deep, one census wide.
In 1970 Malaysia counted 10.9 million people. The 2026 estimate is 34.4 million — 3.2 times as many, on the same land.
Age structure
03
The pyramid is becoming a pillar.
21.2% of the country is under 15; 8.4% is 65 or older — a share that was 6.0% just a decade ago. Every classroom, clinic and pension ringgit eventually follows this shape.
Men
Age
Women
85+
80-84
75-79
70-74
65-69
60-64
55-59
50-54
45-49
40-44
35-39
30-34
25-29
20-24
15-19
10-14
5-9
0-4
Thousands of people per five-year band.
The male count runs ahead of the female count (18.0M men to 16.4M women) — the estimates include non-citizens, and Malaysia's migrant workforce is predominantly male. The chapter will separate citizens from non-citizens in a later pass.
Geography
04
Half the country lives in five states.
Every jurisdiction, 2023 estimates, with growth since 2020. The share bar is each state's slice of everyone counted that year.
| State / territory | People | Share of Malaysia | Since 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Selangor | 7.21M | 21.6% | +3.0% |
| Johor | 4.10M | 12.3% | +2.3% |
| Sabah | 3.59M | 10.8% | +5.1% |
| Perak | 2.54M | 7.6% | +1.8% |
| Sarawak | 2.51M | 7.5% | +2.3% |
| Kedah | 2.19M | 6.6% | +2.6% |
| Kuala Lumpur | 2.00M | 6.0% | +0.8% |
| Kelantan | 1.86M | 5.6% | +3.6% |
| Penang | 1.77M | 5.3% | +1.8% |
| Pahang | 1.64M | 4.9% | +3.2% |
| Negeri Sembilan | 1.22M | 3.7% | +2.0% |
| Terengganu | 1.21M | 3.6% | +5.2% |
| Melaka | 1.03M | 3.1% | +2.9% |
| Perlis | 293k | 0.9% | +2.7% |
| Putrajaya | 119k | 0.4% | +9.2% |
| Labuan | 100k | 0.3% | +4.6% |
Annual DOSM estimates. Growth is the total change 2020–2023, not an annual rate.
Did you know
Selangor alone holds 22% of the country.
Roughly one in 5 people in Malaysia lives in Selangor — 7.21M of the national total in 2023. Labuan, the smallest jurisdiction, holds 100k.
Computed from DOSM state population estimates, 2023
3.2 times the country of 1970.
The 1970 estimate was 10.9 million people. The 2026 estimate is 34.4 million — the same land, 3.2 times the people, most of the growth in the cities.
Computed from DOSM population estimates, 1970–2026
The 65-and-over share was 6.0% a decade ago. It is 8.4% now.
Ageing is visible inside a single decade of the official estimates. The under-15 share, meanwhile, stands at 21.2% — the pyramid below is narrowing at its base.
Computed from DOSM population estimates, 2016 and 2026
Deep data
04.3
What an “estimate” means here.
No one counts 34 million people every year. Between censuses, DOSM projects the population forward from Census 2020 using registered births, deaths and migration — an official estimate, revised as the inputs firm up.
National series
1970–2026
annual estimates, read live from OpenDOSM
State series
2020–2023
shorter window — growth figures say so
Jurisdictions
16
13 states and 3 federal territories, all first-class
Update cadence
Yearly
the page refetches daily and shows its retrieval time
Two numbers, both official
DOSM's quarterly bulletin (34.4 million, Q1 2026) runs ahead of the annual series shown here. Different products, different periods — this page uses the annual series because it goes back to 1970 on one definition.
Non-citizens are included
About one person in ten in the estimate is not a Malaysian citizen. That choice follows DOSM's headline convention, and it is why the sex ratio leans male.
The state window is short
The open state-level series starts in 2020, so state growth here covers a few years, not a generation. Longer state histories exist in census volumes and will be baked in a later pass.
DOSM — population_malaysia & population_state (annual mid-year estimates), via the OpenDOSM / data.gov.my open API · retrieved 2026-10-12 23:07 UTC
Official DOSM estimates projected from Census 2020, including non-citizens. National series 1970–2026; state series 2020–2023. Values are annual estimates, not a live count.
Population is the denominator for nearly everything else in this library — houses per household, beds per resident, students per teacher. Next shelves: Cost of Living and Housing.