“Improve maternity leave, raise minimum wage” key to arrest Malaysia’s alarming birth rate dip

 

CHILDREN are the key to the nation’s future. It is a simple enough truism but one that Malaysians are struggling to come to terms with, given the statistics.

Malaysia recorded only 414,918 live births in 2024 – the lowest number since 1980, according to a recent Facebook post by Public Health Malaysia.

This figure emanating from Department of statistics Malaysia (DOSM) marked a 9.0% drop from the previous year when the fertility rate of the country was about 1.6 children for every woman which is well below the population change level of 2.1.

Editor’s Note:  The Public Health Malaysia FB page is an independent public health advocacy group, not an official arm of the government. It is run by medical professionals and public health advocates.

The simple conclusion – Malaysians born today are not enough to replace the aging generation of Malaysians.

If this trend continues, the country will in another 20 to 30 years has more senior citizens but fewer young people to work, pay taxes and take care of the country’s economy.

Given that Malaysia recorded 537,853 live births in 2000, the country has lost more than 120,000 births a year than in the past in the span of more than two decades

This itself a tell-tale sign that the number of Malaysian children is dwindling, young families are getting smaller and the country is heading towards an aging population faster.

‘Too costly to maintain children’

When Malaysian children get fewer, the empty space will not remain empty. The country will increasingly depend on external energy to fill the job, service, construction, plantation and care sectors.

It’s not about hating foreigners. It’s about the future of the country. If Malaysians themselves are giving birth less and less, who will continue the lineage?

Interestingly, the Public Health Malaysia post has generated 78.7K likes, 2.9K comments and 3.5K shares at the time of writing, an obvious clarion call to all healthy and financially-able Malaysians to consider raising (or adding to) a family.

Top of the suggestions to improve this dire scenario is to have better maternity privileges, not just for the mother but also the patriarch to help shoulder the burden of raising a newborn.

It was noted that some countries have very accommodating maternity leave laws precisely to encourage citizens to have offspring. Some commenters gasped that this leave extended between one to two years and would remain active for up to five children.

One commenter hit the nail on the head when she pointed out that the crux of the issue was the cost of living.

With the cost-of-living crisis biting hard, more than few citizens opined that minimum wage must be raised to allow potential parents to raise their brood.

With the Rohingya refugee issue dominating headlines of late, it was a matter of time before commenters brought up the matter. “Are we to let our children be beggars like the Rohingya?” one irate citizen bluntly enquired.

One health-conscious observer surmised that the decreasing fertility rate was due to more women experiencing health issues.

However, this was rebutted by another commenter who was of the view that lifestyle choices were more to blame rather than health issues. Again, the “ever fertile” Rohingyas were used as yardstick to highlight the point.

Alarming as the dip may be, it would appear that the main issues surrounding the declining birth rate are economic and lifestyle rather than health-related.

Alleviating this will require multi-generational effort from the government who can start by proposing better maternity privileges to both parents. Economic welfare of Malaysians is the pressing issue though and it will need more than just empty platitudes. –  Focus Malaysia