From 1970 till 2020, the urbanisation rate in Malaysia has tripled from 28.4 per cent in 1970 to 75.1 per cent, Department of Statistics (DoSM) said.
According to Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin, the urban population expanded by 21.4 million from 3.0 million in 1970 to 24.4 million in 2020 over the five decades.
Meanwhile, the rural population slightly increased to 8.1 million persons in 2020 from 7.5 million in 1970.
The urbanisation process was contributed by natural population increase, migration and demarcation.
There were six administrative districts that have reached 100 per cent of the urban population, while 45 administrative districts with 100 per cent of the rural population, according to the chief statistician.
“Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya recorded 100 per cent of the population living in urban areas, followed by Selangor (95.8%), Pulau Pinang (92.5%) and Melaka (90.9%).”
“Meanwhile, Kelantan (44.1 per cent), Pahang (52.8 per cent) and Perlis (53.8 per cent) have the lowest rates of urbanisation in 2020,” he was quoted as saying in a statement in conjunction with the release of ‘Key Findings of Population and Housing Census of Malaysia 2020: Urban and Rural’.
“Selangor has the largest urban population of 6.7 million as compared to 4.9 million in 2010, followed by Johor at 3.1 million (2010: 2.3 million) and Kuala Lumpur at 2.0 million (2010: 1.6 million), while Sabah has the highest rural population of 1.5 million,” Mohd Uzir said.
“The number of living quarters in 2020 was recorded at 9.6 million with 7.4 million (76.6 per cent) in urban areas and 2.2 million (23.3 per cent) in rural areas,” he remarked.
“Living quarters in urban showed that Selangor has the highest number at 2.1 million), followed by Johor (992.2 thousand) and W.P Kuala Lumpur (634.6 thousand),” he said.
