Hardly anything is known about the demography of East Malaysia, that is of the lesser developed regions of Sabah and Sarawak, because of the wide range of deficiencies in the available data. This paper uses a range of indirect methods to construct a demographic profile of Sabah and Sarawak over the period 1960 to 1980. Comparisons are made between these areas and Peninsular Malaysia and some overall Malaysian estimates are given. The study suggests that between 1965 and 1980 there were large gains in life expectancy among the indigenous communities in Sabah and Sarawak, although their life expectancies are still shorter than those of the Chinese. Differentials in life chances between these regions and Peninsular Malaysia narrowed appreciably during the 1970s. Over the same period there were falls in levels of fertility. These were most spectacular among the Chinese communities and the groups living in and around the urban areas in Sarawak. There has been some decline in fertility among the indigenous groups in Sabah but current levels remain higher than among the indigenous groups in Sarawak and the Malays in the Peninsula.