The statistics compiled below are based on the Department of Statistics' Population and Housing Census 2000 and Patrick Johnstone and Jason Mandryk's Operation World
According to the 2000 census, Malaysia's Christian community makes up 9.1% of the population of Malaysia. This means that from a total population of 23,274,690, Christianity counts 2,117,997 adherents in the country. Now here is where it gets a bit interesting ..
According to the 2000 Population and Housing Census report, the Christian community in Malaysia can be broken down by ethnicity as follows :
| Bumiputera | Chinese | Indian | Others | Total |
| 5.8% | 2.5% | 0.6% | 0.2% | 9.1% |
| 1,349,932 | 581,867 | 139,648 | 46,550 | 2,117,997 |
It can be further broken down into our administrative divisions as follows:
| State / Territory | Christians |
| Johor | 2.2% |
| Kedah | 0.8% |
| Kelantan | 0.2% |
| Melaka | 3.9% |
| Negeri Sembilan | 2.7% |
| Pahang | 1.2% |
| Perak | 3.1% |
| Perlis | 0.5% |
| Pulau Pinang | 3.6% |
| Sabah | 27.8% |
| Sarawak | 42.6% |
| Selangor | 4.3% |
| Terengganu | 0.3% |
| WP Kuala Lumpur | 5.6% |
| WP Labuan | 12.8% |
According to Operation World, the annual growth rate for Christianity is 2.2% per annum. That would make the number as of 2006 somewhere along these lines:
| Bumiputera | Chinese | Indian | Others | Total |
| 1,538,216 | 663,024 | 159,126 | 53,043 | 2,413,409 |
Since the estimated population for 2006 was 26,640,000, this means that the percentage of the Christian population in Malaysia has actually reduced from 9.1% to 9.06%. Bear in mind that the statistics above are merely estimated as there exists a sizable community of Muslim background Christians that cannot be included in the official statistics for obvious reasons.
One troubling observation did strike me .. looking at the statistics above, one can safely deduce that Malaysians who speak Bahasa Malaysia either as a first language or second language clearly represent the majority of Christians in this country. Why then are they so under-represented in our intra-church bodies and in mainstream expressions of Christianity in Malaysia? The working language in a lot of ecumenical bodies in Malaysia is either English or Mandarin Chinese. This same reality can be seen in our Christian bookstores and in our publications.
Something really isn't kosher with our priorities and perspectives.
References
- "Banci Penduduk dan Perumahan Malaysia 2000", Kuala Lumpur: Department of Statistics, Malaysia, 2001
- Johnstone, Patrick & Mandryk, Jason: "Operation World", Carlisle: Paternoster Lifestyle, 2001
If you liked this post, consider buying me some coffee. Suggested price is $1.00 for a cup and $10.00 for a 1 lbs bag (personally I am a big fan of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe).
Categories: Faith
digg | spymy | facebook | del.icio.us | netscape | blogs4god
Comments (6)
Justin Wong said:
Hmm.. this also looks rather odd to me. Somebody should spread awareness that Malay-speaking Christians should receive proper attention as well.
Posted on May 16, 2007 9:20 PM
Bob K said:
For clarification purposes, the Bumiputera statistics generally refer to the Malay-related indigenous peoples of Malaysia but not the Malays as per Article 160 of the Constitution of Malaysia.
Posted on May 17, 2007 1:29 AM
Steve F. said:
I suppose one reason for the bookstore phenomena is the lack of BM Christian writers... our clergies are not trained in seminaries where BM is the medium of instruction. So..
Posted on May 17, 2007 9:58 AM
Bob K said:
Actually there are quite a few seminaries, including one major one, where the medium of instruction is in BM. I fear its possible that its latent ethnic and cultural bias that might be to blame.
Posted on May 17, 2007 12:15 PM
Passionista said:
Wow, Bob. eye-opening. largest Christian population is Bumiputera? that's paradigm-shifting stuff...
thanks for the stats.
Posted on May 21, 2007 12:07 AM
Alex Tang said:
Hi bob,
Interesting statistics.
It is a good question too. However we should take into consideration
(1) the geographical distribution of the BM speaking Christians. Most of them will be in Sabah and Sarawak. As far as I know, Sabah and Sarawak have a thriving BM ministries or rather ministries using BM as the medium of communication.
(2) those in Penisular Malaysia, if we consider the Chinese, about 90-95 % goes to Mandarin speaking schools while the rest goes to National type. Usually those who go to National Type schools are also conversant in English. For the Indians, they have their Tamil churches.
So it is not the language rather than the people involved in the denominational work that we should be concerned about. Often in many denominations, there is only one representative for Sabah and Sarawak.
However in terms of ministries and strategies, Sabah and Sarawak should be treated independently from Peninsular Malaysia.
Posted on May 22, 2007 11:41 AM