PETALING JAYA: Marriages in the country has seen a declining trend within the Chinese community according to Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin.
The data, obtained from the annual Social Statistics bulletin report on marriages and divorce of Muslim and non-Muslim citizens by the Department of Statistics (DoSM).
From 2016, DoSM published statistics specific to marriages and divorce through the Marriage and Divorce statistics report containing data according to race which showed a decline in other races except the Bumiputera community.
In the report, the Bumiputera community recorded a 47% jump from 2016 to 2022 with 16.0 marriages within a population of 1,000 individuals in 2022 from 10.9 marriages in 2016, Tze Tzin said in a written reply to the Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday (July 10).
The Chinese community however, saw a 33% decline in marriages in 2016, 2020 and 2022, recording 9.8 marriages per a population of 1,000 in 2016 while 2020 saw a drop 3.5 drop to 6.3 marriages but rose to 6.6 marriages per population of 1,000 in 2022, indicating a 0.3 jump.
The Indian community showed a 9% decline in the report with 12.2 marriages per population of 1,000 in 2016 decreasing to 11.1 marriages in 2022.
From these figures, the government has gathered several reasons from single Malaysian men and women aged 25 to 49-years-old according to the 2014 Study of Population and Families in Malaysia.
The study showed 56.0% of men listing financial difficulties, together with 18.4% having not found the right partner as a reason and 9.4% opt to prioritise their career development before tying the knot.
35.7% of women in the study said they have not found the right partner for marriage whereas 26% also listed financial difficulties while 18.1% chose to focus on building their career.
The Women, Family and Community Development ministry (KPWKM) through the Population Board and the National Family Development Board (LPPKN) have worked together implementing various initiatives to increase the nation’s knowledge on marriage through various marriage and family-related programmes.
