PUTRAJAYA: The number of children below 18 years in Malaysia in 2017 is 9.4 million or 29.4 per cent of the 32 million total population, slightly lower than 29.9 per cent recorded in 2016 according to the Department of Statistics.
It said the children statistics showed that the number of boys was 4.9 million as compared to 4.6 million girls.
“The sex ratio for children in 2017 is 107 male children for every 100 female children,” it said in a statement issued here yesterday.
The statement added that the composition of children under five years was 8.2 per cent of the total population in Malaysia. Meanwhile the number of male children under five years was 1.4 million which was more than the 1.3 million female children.
Putrajaya had the highest percentage of children below 18 years which was 42.6 per cent, followed by Kelantan (36.7 per cent) and Terengganu (36.5 per cent).
The statistics also showed that Penang had the lowest percentage of children under 18 years which accounted to 24.1 per cent.
In terms of education, the number of pre-school pupils in 2016 was 200,745, an increase of 2,171 persons from 198,574 persons in 2015.
On the contrary the number of primary and lower secondary pupils for the same period decreased by 239 persons and 42,235 persons respectively to 2,683,753 persons for primary level and 1,258,455 persons for lower secondary level in 2016.
The number of upper secondary students increased by 19,103 from 781,472 persons (2015) to 800,575 persons (2016), said the department. — Bernama