CASE STUDY 3: AS NATIONAL BIRTH RATES DECLINES,

MALAYSIA URGED TO MAKE MORE BABIES

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

To achieve the desire to become a developed nation by the year 2020,

Malaysia should have at least a number of population that covers the standard of a

develop nation. Rapidly decreasing in number of fertility rate has become one of the

main contributor to the decline of birth rates in Malaysia. Since year 2000 to 2012,

the figure of fertility rate has been dropped from 3.0 children born per woman to 2.1

and will fall to 1.9 children per woman by 2020 which relates to the degenerate of

birth rates.

For the next five years, Malaysia’s population is estimated to reach 32 million

people. The major slowdown in population growth will be the result of falling into

the category of an elderly nation as 15 per cent of the total population would be aged

65 years or older. The reasons for the falling birth rate is that more women prefer to

pursue their education and careers first, rather than to have a family life.

As the result, they will be having problems later in life when it comes to

maintaining the family life with their working life. To overcome these obstacles and

also to encourage working couples, the federal government has doubled paternity

leave to seven days, extended maternity leave to 90 days and allows flexible working

hours so parents have more time with their children.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Work & Lifestyle

Economy & Financial

Education

Health

Declining birthrate in Malaysia

Diagram 1

1. Work and lifestyle

Nowadays there are a lot of people who put their job ahead of the family,

competition to be the best and catch career opportunities is just an ongoing

process that will be a challenge for them day by day. These type of

workaholic person will always have difficulties in maintaining / balancing

between work life and family life.

2. Economy and financial

Malaysia remained in the top 25 among 190 global economies this year in

the latest World Bank's Doing Business report, with a favourable business

climate, said the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI).At

24th position, the country is ranked marginally lower than the 23rd spot

attained last year (BERNAMA). Preparation of having a baby is all about

financial purpose. Necessary expenses in terms of basic needs such as

nutrition and food, clothing, and child health care are the main concerns
 for low-income couples. These ongoing expenditures will cause financial

lapse. This will lead to their intention of having no more babies.

3. Focusing on quality of life

As couples are more geared to better quality of life, they prefer to have less

children. This is to ensure that they received a better quality of life.

4. Health

Today most of the unmarried couples prefer to get married later in life as

job and career comes first. So, these may cause health problems for woman

who have difficulties to conceive after age of 35 years old.

In conclusion, these four main reason are the result of declining birth rate

in Malaysia. In this dynamic century, it is crucial to understand the importance

of having more children for the long-term benefit of the country. Thus, some

actions could be taken now to prevent negative impact in the future of our

country.

References:
http://www.themalaymailonline.com
https://twitter.com/bernamadotcom
https://www.nst.com.my/business/2017/08/267747/slowdown-malaysias-
working-age-population-growth-can-affect-future-potential
https://academic.oup.com/humrep/article/17/5/1399/845579/Changes-with-age
https://www.questia.com/library/p436491/population