Malaysia experienced demographic transition as it swung from agricultural-based economy in
early 19th century to knowledge-based economy in the mid of 1990s. Stage one of the
demographic transitions began in 1911-1927 (16 years) subsequently entered stage two in
1928-1957 (29 years), before settling to stage three in 1958 till present.
An examination of the demographic transition showed that Malaysia experienced decline in
total fertility rate from 6.0 in 1960 to 4.0 in 1980, down 3.0 in 2000 and continued to drop to
2.3 in 2010. This contributed by the change in the age structure, from younger population in
1970’s became slightly older in 2010. Share of the population below ages 14 years declined
from 44.9 per cent in 1970 to 33.3 per cent in 2000 and the percentage decreased further to
27.2 per cent in 2010. In terms of mortality, the crude death rate showed a declining trend
from 9.5 in 1960 to 4.9 in 2010. This resulted in the increase in life expectancy from 61.7 to
71.6 years for male and 65.6 and 76.8 years for female for the period 1970 to 2008.
As in most countries around the world, women make up for almost half of the total
population of Malaysia. In view of the current concern and commitment of the Malaysian
Government towards its development and in the spirit of sharing of information during this
conference, this paper sets out to shed some light on the demographic transition in Malaysia
focusing on the changing role of women. It examines macro and micro factors that
contributed to the demographic transition. Macro factors will be focusing on government
policies on population. Meanwhile, micro factors will be describing the economics and social
perspectives such as education and women in employment, mean age at first marriage, family
planning programs as well as the change in the value of children and family support.