KUALA LUMPUR: Based on the population estimates for 2022, there are 9.19 million children under the age of 18, with 4.75 million of them boys and 4.44 million girls, according to the Children Statistics, Malaysia, 2022, issued by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) today.

Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the children made up 28.1 per cent of Malaysia's population of 32.65 million.

He said the composition of children under five years old in 2022 is 2.39 million, comprising 1.22 million boys and 1.17 million girls, which is 26 percent of the total number of children in Malaysia.

Putrajaya recorded the highest percentage of children under the age of 18 in 2022, at 41.6 percent of the total population of 0.12 million, followed by Kelantan (35.3 percent) and Terengganu (34 percent), he said, adding that the lowest is Penang, with 23.4 percent.

"Selangor recorded the highest number of children under the age of 18, at 1.81 million, followed by Johor (1.12 million) and Sabah (1.06 million), with the lowest number recorded in Labuan at 0.03 million," he said in a statement today.

He said all immunisation coverage recorded a decline in 2021 except BCG, which remained at 98.8 per cent.

The three immunisations namely Polio, DTP and HIB showed a decrease of 3.5 per cent to 94.2 per cent in 2021 as compared to 97.7 per cent in 2020, he said, adding that for Hepatitis B, it decreased by 8.2 per cent to 93.0 per cent in 2021 as compared to 101.2 percent in 2020.

According to Mohd Uzir, certain conditions originating in the perinatal period remained the principal cause of death for children below the age of five in 2021 at 37 per cent.

This was followed by Congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities (29.9 percent, Pneumonia (2.1 per cent), COVID-19 infection (1.5 per cent) and transport accidents (1.1 per cent), he added.

He said that findings in education showed that the enrollment transition rate for primary to lower secondary level showed an increase of 1.5 per cent to 90.9 per cent in 2021, compared to 89.4 per cent in 2020.

The enrollment transition rate for lower secondary to upper secondary level also showed an increase of 1.4 per cent to 99.3 per cent over the same period, he added.

However, he said, the enrollment transition rate from upper secondary to post-secondary recorded a decrease of 0.7 per cent in 2021 to 2.8 per cent, compared to 3.5 per cent in the previous year.

Mohd Uzir said that based on the perspective of child protection, the number of children in need of care and protection increased 4.9 per cent to 6,144 persons in 2021, from 5,858 persons in 2020.

Girls outnumbered boys at 4,005 persons and 2,139 persons respectively, he said, adding that the cumulative number of registered Persons With Disabilities (PwD) in 2021 was 148,000.

-- BERNAMA