Malaysia's population comprises many ethnic groups. People of
Austronesian origin make up the majority of the population, and are known as the
Bumiputras. Large Chinese and Indian minorities also exist. Malays, as Bumiputra, see Malaysia as their land, and since race riots in 1969, Bumiputra have been especially privileged in Malaysia – top government positions are reserved for Malays, and the Malays received cheaper housing, priority in government jobs as well as business licenses. However, since the riot, racial stability has prevailed, if not full harmony, and mixed marriages are on the rise. In the 2010 census, 68.8 per cent of the population were considered
bumiputera, 23.2 per cent
Malaysian Chinese, and 7 per cent
Malaysian Indian. In 2021 these figures were 69.7 per cent bumiputera, 22.5 per cent Chinese, and 6.8 per cent Indian. population in Malaysia
Bumiputras that depicts the languages and ethnic groups of Malaysia Bumiputras totaling 69.7% of Malaysia's population as of 2021 are divided into
Muslim Malays proper, who make up the majority of the Malaysian population at 57.9%; and other
bumiputra, who make up 13.2% of the Malaysian population, and most of whom belong to various
Austronesian ethnic groups related to the Muslim Malays. Bumiputra status is also accorded to certain non-Malay
indigenous peoples, including
Orang Asli and the natives of
Sabah and
Sarawak. Laws over who gets Bumiputra status vary between states. Some Eurasians can obtain bumiputra privileges, providing they can prove they are of Portuguese (
Kristang) descent.
Malays The Malays are an ethnic group predominantly inhabiting the Malay Peninsula and parts of
Sumatra and
Borneo. They form the largest community in Malaysia and play a dominant role politically. They make up about half of the total population. By
constitutional definition, Malays are Muslims who practice Malay customs (
adat) and culture. Their language,
Malay (
Bahasa Melayu), is the national language of the country. Citizens of Minangkabau, Bugis or Javanese origins, who can be classified "Malay" under constitutional definitions may also speak their respective ancestral tongues. However, English is also widely spoken in major towns and cities across the country. Malays from different states in Malaysia carry distinct dialects that can sometimes be unintelligible to most of their fellow countrymen. By definition of the
Malaysian constitution, all Malays are Muslims. In the past, Malays wrote in
Pallava or using the
Sanskrit-based alphabet of
Kawi. Arabic traders later introduced
Jawi, an Arabic-based script, which became popular after the 15th century. Until then reading and writing were mostly the preserve of scholars and nobility, while most Malay commoners were illiterate. Jawi was taught along with Islam, allowing the script to spread through all social classes. Nevertheless,
Kawi remained in use by the upper-class well into the 15th century. The
Romanised script was introduced during the colonial period and, over time, it came to replace both Sanskrit and Jawi. This was largely due to the influence of the European education system, wherein children were taught the Latin alphabet. Malay culture shows strong influences from
Buddhism,
Hinduism and animism. However, since the
Islamisation movement of the 1980s and 90s, these aspects are often neglected or banned altogether. Because any Malay-speaking Muslim is entitled to Bumiputra privileges, many non-Malay Muslims have adopted the Malay language, customs and attire in the last few decades. This is particularly the case with Indian Muslims from the peninsula and the
Kedayan of Borneo. The Malay ethnic group is distinct from the concept of a
Malay race, which encompasses a wider group of people, including most of Indonesia and the Philippines.
Other Bumiputras Malaysia has many other non-Malay indigenous people, who are given Bumiputra status. The indigenous tribes are the oldest inhabitants of
Malaysia, and the indigenous groups of Peninsular Malaysia are known collectively as
Orang Asli and in East Malaysia as "
Orang Asal". They account for about 11 percent of the nation's population, and represent a majority in East Malaysia of
Sabah and
Sarawak. In Sarawak, the dominant tribal group are the
Dayak people, who are either Iban (also known as Sea Dayak) or Bidayuh (also known as Land Dayak) of which are mainly Christians. The
Iban form the largest of all indigenous groups, numbering over 600,000 (35% of Sarawak's population), who mostly still live in traditional
longhouses which can hold up to 200 people. Longhouses are mostly places along the Rajang and Lupar rivers and their tributaries, although many Iban have moved to the cities. The
Bidayuhs, numbering around 170,000, are concentrated in the southwestern part of Sarawak. They, together with other indigenous groups in Sarawak make up over half of the states population. and rice farmers. They live as subsistence farmers. Sabah has a large number of indigenous people, 19.3% of the population are
Kadazan-Dusuns, and 16.5% are
Bajaus. There also exist
aboriginal groups in much smaller numbers on the peninsula, where they are collectively known as
Orang Asli (literally meaning "original person"). The 140,000
Orang Asli comprise a number of different ethnic communities. Many tribes, both on the peninsula and in Borneo, were traditionally nomadic or semi-nomadic hunter—gatherers who practice animism, including the
Punan,
Penan and
Senoi. However, their ancestral land and hunting grounds are commonly reclaimed by the state, shifting them to inferior land and sometimes pushing them out of their traditional way of life. One group of Orang Asli are called '
Negritos' and are deeply related to the ancestors of other modern
East Asian people. They consist one of the earliest layers of population. Some Negrito sub-groups are now extinct, such as the Semang Bakau of
Penang. Other bumiputera minorities to a lesser degree include the
Malaysian Siamese, Khmers, Chams, Burmese and the Indian Muslims commonly known as Mamaks.
Non-Bumiputras Minorities who lack Bumiputra status have established themselves in Malaysia. Those who are not considered to be Bumiputras make up a considerable portion of the Malaysian population – non-Malays once constituted around 50% of the population of peninsula Malaya (1947–1957), but have since declined in percentage term due to a higher birthrate of Malays owing to favorable policies by the government as well as some degree of out-migration by the Chinese. A large number of the non-Bumiputra arrived during the colonial period, but most of the non-Bumiputras were native-born by 1947 as large-scale immigration had effectively ceased by the late 1940s.
George Town,
Ipoh and
Iskandar Puteri are Chinese-majority cities, while
Penang was the only state in Malaysia with a non-Bumiputera majority population. , the Chinese comprised over 41% of Penang's population, making it the only state with a Chinese plurality. The Chinese have been settling in Malaysia for many centuries, as seen in the emergence of the
Peranakan culture, but the exodus peaked during the nineteenth century through trading and
tin-mining. When they first arrived, the Chinese often worked the most grueling jobs like
tin mining and railway construction. Later on, some of them owned businesses that became large conglomerates in today's Malaysia. Most Chinese are
Tao Buddhist and retain strong cultural ties to their ancestral homeland. The first Chinese people to settle in the
Straits Settlements, gradually adopted elements of Malayan culture, and some intermarried with the Malayan community. A distinct sub-ethnic group called
babas (male) and
nyonyas (female) emerged.
Babas and
nyonyas as a group are known as
Peranakan. They produced a syncretic set of practices, beliefs, and arts, combining Malay and Chinese traditions in such a way as to create a new culture. The
Peranakan culture is still visible to this day in the former
Straits Settlements such as
Singapore and
Penang. The Chinese community in Malaysia, depending on the predominant dialect in a particular region, speaks a variety of Chinese dialects including
Mandarin,
Hokkien,
Cantonese,
Hakka and
Teochew. In certain regions in Malaysia, some dialects are more widely used;
Hokkien predominates in
Penang and
Kedah, while most Chinese in the former centres of
tin mining, such as
Ipoh and
Kuala Lumpur, speak
Cantonese. More recently, however, with the standardised, compulsory use of
Mandarin in Chinese schools, a huge majority of
Malaysian Chinese now speak
Mandarin, a non-native language that originated from northern China. On the other hand, it was reported that up to 10% of
Malaysian Chinese are primarily English-speaking. The English-speaking Chinese minority is typically concentrated in cities such as
Kuala Lumpur,
Petaling Jaya,
Puchong,
Subang Jaya,
George Town and
Ipoh. The English speakers form a distinct subset within the larger Chinese community, as they are known to have a less Sinocentric mindset, and are rather Westernized in thinking and attitudes.
Indian in
Selangor The 2.02 million Indian community in Malaysia is the smallest of the three main ethnic groups, comprising only 6.6% of the total population excluding non-citizens as of 2021. Indians were brought in to Malaysia during the British colonial period in late 18th century and early 19th centuries. During the British colonial rule, Indian labourers, who were mostly south Indian Tamils from Tamil Nadu and some Telugus and Malayalis from other parts of South India, were brought to Malaya to work on sugarcane and coffee plantations, rubber and oil palm estates, construction of buildings, railways, roads and bridges. Between 1800 to 1920, 740k Indians migrated to Malaysia. English-educated
Ceylon Tamils from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and some
Malaysian Telugus and
Malayalees (from Kerala) were brought in to handle white-collar jobs. Kerala had the first mission schools in India and as such produced English educated administrators. Both ethnicities worked mainly as clerks, public servants, teachers, hospital assistants, doctors and in other skilled professions. As for the
Punjabis from
Punjab, most of them where enlisted in the army in Malaya while some handled the bullock-cart services in the country. The Indians who came to Malaysia brought with them the
Hindu religion, its unique temples called
Kovils and the Sikhs with their
Gurdwaras.
Tamil cuisine is hugely popular. More than 86% of Malaysian Indians adhere to Hinduism. The Chitty community in Malacca are descendants of much earlier Indian immigrants who adopted local culture. Though they remain Hindu, the Chitties speak Bahasa Malaysia and women dress in sarong kebayas. The Hindu community celebrates two main festivals —
Deepavali and
Thaipusam — and many other smaller religious events each year. Both ethnic
Telugu people and
Malayalees from
Andhra Pradesh and
Kerala celebrate the
Ugadi festival (new year) and
Onam. The ethnic Punjabis celebrate
Vasakhi,
Lodi and Gurpurab. Majority of the Indians in Malaysia speak
Tamil (also lingua franca among all Indians) while
Telugu,
Malayalam and
Punjabi are also spoken by minorities.
Others A small minority of Malaysians do not fit into the broader ethnic groups. A small population exists of people of European and Middle Eastern descent. Europeans and Middle Easterners, who first arrived during the colonial period, assimilated through intermarriage into the Christian and Muslim communities. Most Eurasian Malaysians trace their ancestry to British, Dutch and/or Portuguese colonists, and there is a strong
Kristang community in Malacca. The
Nepalese are mostly migrant workers from
Nepal totalling 356,199 of which Malaysian Citizens are as little over 600 and lives in
Rawang, Selangor. Originally brought by the British as bodyguards and security personnel,
Nepali population consist of Rana, Chettri, Rai and Gurung clans. Other minorities include
Filipinos and
Burmese. A small number of ethnic
Vietnamese from
Cambodia and
Vietnam settled in Malaysia as
Vietnam War refugees. There is no general consensus on the ethnic profiling of children of mixed parentage. Some choose to be identified according to paternal ethnicity while others simply think that they fall in the "Others" category. The majority choose to identify themselves as Malay as long as either parent is Malay, mainly due to the legal definition of Bumiputra and the privileges that comes along with it. Children of Chinese–Indian parentage are known as
Chindians. Though this is not an official category in national census data, it is an increasing number especially in urban areas due to the increasing ethnic Chinese-Indian relationships. Many other people from around the world have moved to Malaysia. There are over 70,000 Africans who have emigrated to Malaysia. == Languages ==