|Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and other religions.|
Malaysian (Malay: Orang Malaysia) are the citizens of Malaysia, or their descendants abroad. Malaysia is a multiethnic society which is home to many ethnicities from different backgrounds. Malays, Chinese, and Indians form the three largest ethnic groups of Malaysia. The 2015 census puts the population of Malaysia at 30,432,000.
Malaysia demographics are represented by the multitude of ethnic groups that exist in this country. Malaysia's population, as of July 2010[update], is estimated to be 30,432,000, which makes it the 42nd most populated country in the world.
Malays and Bumiputera
In 2010, Malaysian citizens, of which bumiputera accounted for 67.4% of the total citizen population, made up 91.8% of the population. According to constitutional definition, Malays are Muslims who practice Malay customs and culture. They play a dominant role politically. Bumiputera status is also accorded to certain non-Malay indigenous peoples, including ethnic Thais, Khmers, Chams, natives of Sabah and Sarawak and certain Muslim groups in the country such as the Indian Muslims and Chinese Hui. Non-Malay bumiputera make up more than half of Sarawak's population and over two thirds of Sabah's population. Smaller number of aboriginal groups also live on the peninsula, where they are collectively known as the Orang Asli. Laws over who gets bumiputera status vary between states.
The sub-ethnics of Bumiputera are:
- Orang Asli
- Malaccan Portuguese
- Malaysian Siamese
Malaysian Chinese constitute one group of Overseas Chinese and is one of the largest Overseas Chinese communities in the world. Within Malaysia, they are usually simply referred to as "Chinese" and represent the second largest ethnic group in Malaysia after the ethnic Malay majority.Malaysian Chinese are a socioeconomically well established middle-class ethnic group and make up a highly disproportionate percentage of Malaysia's upper middle class and one of the highest household incomes among minority demographic groups in Malaysia. Malaysian Chinese are dominant in both the business and commerce sectors, controlling an estimated 70% of the Malaysian economy.
Malaysia is home to one of the largest populations of Overseas Indians, constituting about 8% of the Malaysian population. Malaysia's Indian population is notable for its class stratification, with large elite and lower income groups. The Malaysian Indians also make up a disproportionately large percentage of the Malaysian professional workforce per capita,constitute 15.5 percent of Malaysian professionals. This includes doctors (28.4%), lawyers (26.8%), dentists (21%), veterinary surgeons (28.5%), engineers (6.4%), accountants (5.8%), surveyors (3.0%) and architects (1.5%). Furthermore, Malaysian Indians make up 38% of the Malaysian medical workforce. Besides that, Malaysian Indians are highly known for their higher contribution towards Malaysian history and development.
There is a large numbers of expatriate in Malaysia, who mostly enter the country as labour force or students with some of them have staying illegally in the country. Most of the expatriates are:
Malaysia contains speakers of 137 living languages, 41 of which are found in Peninsula Malaysia. Bahasa Malaysia or Standard Malay is the official language of Malaysia. Meanwhile,English is consider as De Facto administrative language.Chinese Malaysians predominantly speak Chinese dialects from the southern provinces of China. The more common dialects in the country are Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka, Hainanese, and Fuzhou. Tamil is used predominantly by Tamils, who form a majority of Malaysian Indians.Other Indian languages like the Telugu, Malayalam and Punjabi also widely spoken..
The Malaysian constitution guarantees freedom of religion while making Islam the state religion. According to the Population and Housing Census 2010 figures, ethnicity and religious beliefs correlate highly. Approximately 61.3% of the population practice Islam, 19.8% practice Buddhism, 9.2% Christianity, 6.3% Hinduism and 1.3% practice Confucianism, Taoism and other traditional Chinese religions. 0.7% declared no religion and the remaining 1.4% practised other religions or did not provide any information.
At the 2006 Census 92,335 Australian residents stated that they were born in Malaysia. 64,855 Malaysian born Australian residents declared having Chinese ancestry (either alone or with another ancestry), 12,057 declared a Malay ancestry and 5,848 declared an Indian ancestry.
Malaysians in India consists of expatriates and international students from Malaysia as well as Indian people of Malaysian descent. Most of them are Malaysians of Indian origin. As of 2011, an estimated 2,500 Malaysians, mostly working for Malaysian-based companies as well as 2,000 students, reside in India, mainly in South India.
There were 6,000 Malaysians living and working in the United Arab Emirates as of 2010
The Malaysian community in the UK is one of the west's largest, this is mainly due to the influence of the British Empire on Malaysia. The 2001 UK Census recorded 49,886 Malaysian-born people, with September 2009 Office for National Statistics estimates putting the figure at around 63,000
According to answers provided to an open-ended question included in the 2010 United States Census, 26,179 people said that their ancestry or ethnic origin was Malaysian