PUTRAJAYA (Malaysia), Dec 23 (NNN-Bernama) — The urbanisation rate in Malaysia has tripled from 28.4 per cent in 1970 to 75.1 per cent in 2020, which was contributed by natural population increase, migration and demarcation.
Chief Statistician Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said over the five decades, the urban population expanded by 21.4 million from 3.0 million in 1970 to 24.4 million in 2020, while, the rural population slightly increased to 8.1 million persons in 2020 from 7.5 million in 1970.
He said there were six administrative districts that have reached 100 per cent of the urban population, while 45 administrative districts with 100 per cent of the rural population.
“Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya recorded 100 per cent of the population living in urban areas, followed by the state of Selangor (95.8 per cent), Pulau Pinang (92.5 per cent) and Melaka (90.9 per cent).
“Meanwhile, Kelantan (44.1 per cent), Pahang (52.8 per cent) and Perlis (53.8 per cent) have the lowest rates of urbanisation in 2020,” he said in a statement in conjunction with the release of ‘Key Findings of Population and Housing Census of Malaysia 2020: Urban and Rural’, Friday.
Mohd Uzir said Selangor has the largest urban population of 6.7 million as compared to 4.9 million in 2010, followed by Johor at 3.1 million (2010: 2.3 million) and Kuala Lumpur at 2.0 million (2010: 1.6 million), while Sabah has the highest rural population of 1.5 million.
He also noted that the number of living quarters in 2020 was recorded at 9.6 million with 7.4 million (76.6 per cent) in urban areas and 2.2 million (23.3 per cent) in rural areas.
“Living quarters in urban showed that Selangor has the highest number at 2.1 million), followed by Johor (992.2 thousand) and Kuala Lumpur (634.6 thousand),” he said.
— NNN-BERNAMA