THE number of live births in Malaysia in the first quarter (Q1) of 2023 was 111,604, an 8.9% increase over the Q1 2022 figure of 102,466.

Chief Statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin said male babies outnumbered females at 57,654 to 53,950 births.

He said Selangor recorded the highest live births with 21,148 or 18.9% of the total, while Labuan had the lowest with 361 or 0.3%.

“The highest age group of mothers was recorded at the ages of 30-39 years, which is 57,491 (51.5%), followed by the ages of 20-29 years (41.6%), 40 years and over (5.3%) and less than 20 years (1.6%),” he said in a statement today.

Uzir said the number of deaths in the first quarter of 2023 decreased by 11.7% to 47,767 from 54,123 in the same period last year, with Selangor recording the highest number at 7,548 deaths or 15.8%, and Putrajaya the lowest at 66 deaths or 0.1%.

He said the number of deaths involving those aged 60 and over constituted the highest at 33,687 (70.5%), followed by ages 41-59 (19.9%), 15-40 (7.1%) and 0-14 (2.5%).

“Deaths due to Covid-19 contributed 0.2% to the total number of deaths in the first quarter of 2023. Selangor recorded the highest number of Covid-19 deaths (31) while none was recorded in Kelantan and Labuan,” he said.

Uzir said based on current estimates, Malaysia’s population in the first quarter of this year was 33.2 million, a 1.6% increase from Q1 2022.

The population comprised 30.4 million or 91.7% citizens and 2.8 million or 8.3% non-citizens, he said. – Bernama, May 11, 2023.