party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands

Geography - note:
strategic location along Strait of Malacca and southern South China
Sea

People Malaysia

Population:
23,953,136 (July 2005 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 33% (male 4,067,006/female 3,837,758)
15-64 years: 62.4% (male 7,488,367/female 7,447,047)
65 years and over: 4.6% (male 490,334/female 622,624) (2005 est.)

Median age:
total: 23.92 years
male: 23.32 years
female: 24.54 years (2005 est.)

Population growth rate:
1.8% (2005 est.)

Birth rate:
23.07 births/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Death rate:
5.06 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Net migration rate:
0 migrant(s)/1,000 population
note: does not reflect net flow of an unknown number of illegal
immigrants from other countries in the region (2005 est.)

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2005 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
total: 17.7 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 20.49 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 14.71 deaths/1,000 live births (2005 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 72.24 years
male: 69.56 years
female: 75.11 years (2005 est.)

Total fertility rate:
3.07 children born/woman (2005 est.)

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
0.4% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
52,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
2,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
degree of risk: high
food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
typhoid fever
vectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malaria are high risks in
some locations (2004)

Nationality:
noun: Malaysian(s)
adjective: Malaysian

Ethnic groups:
Malay 50.4%, Chinese 23.7%, Indigenous 11%, Indian 7.1%, others
7.8% (2004 est.)

Religions:
Muslim, Buddhist, Daoist, Hindu, Christian, Sikh; note - in
addition, Shamanism is practiced in East Malaysia

Languages:
Bahasa Melayu (official), English, Chinese dialects (Cantonese,
Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka, Hainan, Foochow), Tamil, Telugu,
Malayalam, Panjabi, Thai