There are currently 6.5 million Chinese in Malaysia.
A report in Sin Chew Daily quoted Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman Department of Chinese Studies head Asst Prof Dr Chin Chong Foh as adding that according to the Department of Statistics, the Chinese population had dropped to less than 25 per cent in recent years.
Chin estimated that a Chinese family must have at least three children in order to meet the population replacement rate.
Among the reasons for the declining Chinese population in Malaysia are the declining Chinese birth rate and the fact that Chinese tended to marry late and have fewer children.
Another reason is that some Chinese have migrated in the past 30 years.
The Star reported that there are an estimated 31.7 million people in the country.
Quoting Department of Statistics figures, it said the ethnic Bumiputera population made up 68.6 per cent or 19.3 million, followed by Chinese at 23.4 per cent (6.5 million), Indians at seven per cent (1.98 million) and other races at one per cent (284,000).
According to the estimates there are about 3.3 million non-Malaysians in the country.
“The percentage of non-Malaysians in 2016 was at 10.3 per cent of the total population,” said the Department of Statistics in a report on the current population estimate (2014 – 2016).
In 2010, foreigners made up 8.2 per cent or 2.3 million of the then population of 28.3 million, as recorded by the department in its 2010 population distribution and basic demographic characteristic report.