This page was originally written in 2017. A lot has changed since then but I haven’t had the time to update the page!
Malaysia is a fascinatingly diverse country. According to data from the CIA World Factbook there are 31,381,992 people living in Malaysia (July 2017 est.)
50% of the population are Malay, 22% Chinese, 11% Indigenous, 7% Indian and 8% are non-citizens.
61% of Malaysians are Muslim (all the Malay, along with a small proportion of the Indian and Indigenous people). The majority of the Indian population are Hindu (6%). Buddhism is the main religion of the Chinese (20%) with Confucianism, Taoism and other traditional Chinese religions making up 1%. 9.2% of the population are Christian (data according to the 2010 census).
The official language and language of government is Malay. However, English is widely spoken possibly as a result of Malaysia being colonised by the British from the early 1800’s. Many Malaysians from a wealthier background speak English as their first language. In the capital, Kuala Lumpur, English is so widely spoken that it is easy to go through daily life just speaking English.
Malaysia is made up of two regions: West Malaysia on the Malay Peninsula, which consists of 11 states, and East Malaysia, on the island of Borneo, which consists of two states. It’s a tropical country so the temperature is usually above 30C.
The ruling political coalition, Barisan Nasional, has been in power for more than 50 years. For more statistics and information on Malaysia you can view the following page from the CIA World Factbook.