- ISO 3166
MY- Primary locale
ms-MY- Currency
- MYR · Malaysian Ringgit
- Region
- APAC · SEA
Malaysia
Malaysia has 34.6M people, and 33.9M of them are online. Malay is the most widely spoken language at 75%, one of 9 languages CLDR lists here. Malay is official nationally. A product shipping here defaults to ms-MY.
At a glance
Each figure is drawn against the rest of the world, so a number means something before you have any other market to compare it with.
People online
33.9M
0%world median 81%100%
98% of 34.6M people use the internet, per the World Bank's 2024 figure. CLDR population multiplied by that share, so read it as an estimate rather than a headcount.
Income per person
$13,125
Higher than 56% of 213 territories
GDP per capita in current US dollars, World Bank Open Data, most recent reported year. A rough guide to what people can spend, not what your product will earn.
Can pay online
89%
0%world median 71%100%
Adults aged 15 and over holding a bank or mobile-money account, World Bank Global Findex 2024. Below half means a card-only checkout excludes most of the market.
Languages
9
Malay 75% · English 21% · Chinese 17%
Languages CLDR records here with a share of 0.1% or more. 1 of them is official nationally.
English proficiency
581
Very lowVery high
High proficiency on the EF EPI 2025 scale. The sample is self-selected online test takers, so treat it as colour for a discussion. It never enters any score on this site.
Adult literacy
93%
0%world median 95%100%
Share of adults who can read, as recorded in CLDR territory data. Low literacy shifts a product toward icons, audio, and video before it shifts toward another language.
What people speak
Shares count first and second languages, so they sum past 100% and one bilingual person is counted twice.
Most spoken in Malaysia
share of 34.6M people
- Malayofficial75%25.9M
- English21%7.3M
- Chinese17%5.9M
- Tamil4%1.5M
- Iban3%864.1K
- Javanese1%414.8K
- Negeri Sembilan Malay1%414.8K
- Central Dusun0.6%193.6K
Filled bars are nationally official languages. Every bar is drawn against the largest language rather than against 100%, so a 1% language stays visible. 1 more language sits below the top eight, at 0.1% combined.
One country understates a language. CLDR records diaspora too, so a language usually reaches further than any single page shows. The language profiles show each one's full footprint.
What you would ship
Configuration for day one, computed live with Intl.* against ms-MY, the dominant locale for this market.
Plural categories
1
No grammatical plural agreement. The string catalog is simpler.
Script family
Latin
Default system fonts cover this script on all major platforms.
Reading direction
Left-to-right
Standard. Use dir='auto' on user-generated content fields.
Date
21 April 2026
Short: 21/04/26
Time
6:30 PTG
Week starts Mon
Currency
RM 1,234.56
1,234.56 in MYR · Malaysian Ringgit