Deaths up 10%, births decline by 4.4% in Q2

 

It was anticipated earlier that the lockdown to control the spread of Covid-19 would lead to a baby boom, but statistics have shown otherwise.

PETALING JAYA: The statistics department has recorded a 10.1% increase in deaths and a 4.4% decrease in births in the second quarter of 2021 when compared to the previous year.

Chief Statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin said there were 44,307 deaths in the second quarter of 2021, comprising 25,216 males and 19,091 females.

During this period, he said Selangor recorded the highest number of deaths with 6,818 deaths (15.4%) while Putrajaya recorded the lowest with 53 deaths (0.1%).

“A total of 3,898 deaths due to Covid-19 were recorded in the second quarter of 2021, an increase from 78 deaths for the same period in 2020,” he said in a statement.

He added that data showed most of the Covid-19 deaths were among those aged 65 to 69, followed by those aged 70 to 74.

“Selangor registered the highest number of deaths due to Covid-19, with 1,236 deaths, while Putrajaya registered the lowest with only four deaths.”

Uzir revealed there were 111,573 births in 2021, compared to the 116,688 in 2020 during the same period. A little more than half of the births in the second quarter were female.

Selangor recorded the highest number of births with 20,389 (18.3%) while Labuan recorded the lowest, with 390 (0.3%).

“It was anticipated earlier that the lockdown during Covid-19 would lead to a baby boom but statistics have shown otherwise. This decline in the number of births is in line with other countries, such as the US, South Korea, UK, France and Spain,” said Uzir.

He also said the pandemic had not had any significant impact on Malaysia’s life expectancy at birth, with a baby born in 2021 expected to live for 75.6 years – 1.3 years longer than a decade ago.

Based on the current estimates, he added that Malaysia’s population in the second quarter of this year was around 32.66 million, a 0.2% increase from the year before.

The three states with the highest population in the second quarter of 2021 were Selangor (20.1%), Sabah (11.7%) and Johor (11.6%). Labuan and Putrajaya recorded the lowest population composition at 0.3% and 0.4% respectively. - FMT