PETALING JAYA: Is there an increasing number of Malaysians choosing to remain single instead of getting married? According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), the number of males and females aged 15 and above who have never been married has increased from 3.08 million in 1970 to 8.39 million in 2020. However, the percentage of single persons in relation to the country’s population has decreased as a result of population growth.
In 1970, 53.6% of the population aged 15 and above were single, but this figure fell to 34.01% in 2020. The DOSM report titled Key Findings Population and Housing Census of Malaysia 2020 provides the country’s marital status figures, which are divided into four categories: never married, married, widowed, and divorced/separated. The report also states that Malaysia’s population grew from 10.44 million in 1970 to 32.45 million in 2020.
There are more single males than females in Malaysia, with the report showing that 4.87 million males surveyed were single compared to 3.52 million females. The report indicates that 10 states or federal territories have a larger share of singles in their populations compared to the national average of 34.01%. Pahang leads with nearly 45.7% of its population aged 15 and above listed as single, followed by Kelantan (40.2%), Perlis (38.8%), Terengganu (37.8%), and Johor (36.8%). Negeri Sembilan has the smallest share of singles at 27%.
Brunei has the highest percentage of single people aged 15, according to the United Nations (UN) Demographic Statistics Database, with over 38% of its population listed as never married in 2021. In the UN’s dataset, Malaysia’s single population ranked second with Cambodia third at 32.7%. In comparison, Singapore has 315,305 never-married individuals per one million population.
Vietnam and Indonesia have the lowest percentage of single people in the region, with less than 23% of its population aged 15 and above never married, with Indonesia at 22.9% and Vietnam at 22.5%.
