Kota Kinabalu: Sabah’s population increased by more than six-fold, rising from 635,400 to an estimated 3.9 million, between 1970 and 2020, according to the just-launched “Demographic and Socio-economic Changes in Sabah” book.
In comparison, Malaysia’s population increased by about three-fold, from 10.5 million to 32.6 million, during the same period.
“The population of Sabah has changed dramatically over the last five decades due to the interplay between natural increase and trans-national migration,” said the report published by Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS).
“During the 1970-1990 period, Sabah registered a very high rate of population growth of 4-5.5 per cent per annum, before slowing down to 2.2 per cent in 2000 and stopping growing in 2019.
