Malaysia's Population by Religion: What the Census Recorded

Every ten years, Malaysia’s national census asks a question few government forms ask directly: what is your religion. In 2020, 32.4 million people answered, and the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) published the count in a single paragraph of its Key Findings release — five numbers, no commentary attached.

This article reports exactly what that release, and its companion district-level release, state. Nothing more.

The five numbers DOSM published

MyCensus 2020 — the sixth Population and Housing Census since Malaysia’s formation in 1963 — set census day at 7 July 2020. DOSM’s Key Findings report, launched 14 February 2022, gives the religion count as follows:

Religion	Population (DOSM figure)
Islam	20.6 million
Buddhism	6.1 million
Christianity	2.9 million
Hinduism	2.0 million
Others	860,000

That is DOSM’s own wording, quoted from the release: “Muslims in 2020 amounted 20.6 million, Christians 2.9 million, Buddhists 6.1 million, Hindus 2.0 million and Others 860 thousand.” Islam is by a wide margin the largest reported affiliation, followed by Buddhism, then Christianity, then Hinduism.

Note what is not here: a percentage. Neither release cited in this article converts these counts into shares of the population, so no percentage breakdown is stated above. Percentage figures for Malaysia’s religious composition are published in the full Key Findings census report and are quoted widely; that report was not verified for this draft, so this article reports only the counts it could check word for word.

DOSM’s release also does not split “Others” into named religions, and it does not use the words “no religion” or “unknown” anywhere in the text. Figures for those specific categories are not reported here because they do not appear in the source.

Where each religion is most concentrated

At state level, the Key Findings launch release states plainly: “The highest number of Muslims was in Selangor, while the highest number of Christians were in Sarawak. Selangor was also the state with the highest number of Buddhists and Hindus.”

DOSM’s companion release, Key Findings Population and Housing Census of Malaysia 2020: Administrative District (29 May 2022), breaks the same religion count down to the district level. Its top three districts for each religion:

Religion	1st	2nd	3rd
Islam	Petaling, Selangor (1.2 million)	W.P. Kuala Lumpur (0.9 million)	Ulu Langat, Selangor (0.89 million)
Buddhism	W.P. Kuala Lumpur (0.64 million)	Petaling, Selangor (0.63 million)	Johor Bahru, Johor (0.57 million)
Hinduism	Petaling, Selangor (0.22 million)	Klang, Selangor (0.18 million)	W.P. Kuala Lumpur (0.16 million)
Christianity	Kuching, Sarawak (0.2 million)	Petaling, Selangor (0.18 million)	Sibu, Sarawak (0.15 million)

Petaling, Selangor — Malaysia’s most populous administrative district overall, at 2.3 million people — appears in the top three for all four religions. That is a function of its size rather than a distinct religious concentration; DOSM does not characterise it as such, and neither does this article.

How the count was taken

A few facts about the mechanism, all stated in DOSM’s own release:

• MyCensus 2020 was conducted under the Federal Constitution (Articles 74, 77, 109 and 112C), the Census Act 1960 (Revised 1969) and the Statistics Act 1965 (Revised 1989), following a Cabinet decision of 12 July 2017.
• Religion was one of the census’s core demographic variables, collected alongside population, households, living quarters, sex, age, citizenship, ethnicity and marital status, across 108 questionnaire items.
• Data collection ran from 7 July 2020 to 31 October 2021, using a mix of e-Census, computer-assisted interviews and paper forms; DOSM reports 91.9% of responses as electronic.
• Malaysia’s total population grew from 27.5 million in the 2010 census to 32.4 million in 2020 — an annual growth rate of 1.7%, DOSM notes, slower than the 2.2% recorded between 2000 and 2010.

Common mistakes

Attributing a percentage breakdown to the releases cited here. Percentage splits of Malaysia’s religious composition circulate widely and are attributed to Census 2020. They do not appear in either release used as a source for this article: both give absolute counts, in five categories, with no “no religion” or “unknown” line. Anyone quoting a percentage should cite the full Key Findings census report it came from, not these releases — and should not derive one by dividing the rounded counts above, which would produce a figure that is not DOSM’s.

Treating district population size as religious concentration. A district topping the list for several religions at once, like Petaling, usually reflects that it is Malaysia’s largest district by population, not that any one religion is unusually concentrated there relative to the others.

Assuming the 2010 census breakdown by religion is confirmed here. DOSM’s 2010 religion figures could not be independently verified against a live official source at the time of writing, so this article reports only the verified 2020 figures and the verified total-population comparison (27.5 million in 2010 versus 32.4 million in 2020).

What’s next

For how DOSM runs the census and its other statistical releases, see DOSM — Department of Statistics Malaysia. For the state that recorded the highest number of Christians in this count, see Sarawak.

---

This article is classified as sensitive (religion, part of the 3R+1 category) under NegaraKu.md’s editorial policy. It is written to be strictly descriptive: it reports only the figures published in the DOSM releases listed in the frontmatter, states plainly where a figure could not be verified, and offers no interpretation of religious practice, belief or policy. It is held in draft pending human sign-off before publication.