Natural hazards:
flooding, landslides, forest fires
Environment - current issues: air pollution from industrial and vehicular emissions; water pollution from raw sewage; deforestation; smoke/haze from Indonesian forest fires
Environment - international agreements: party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol
Geography - note:
strategic location along Strait of Malacca and southern South China
Sea
People Malaysia
Population:
23,092,940 (July 2003 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 33.7% (male 4,001,507; female 3,777,896)
15-64 years: 61.9% (male 7,163,252; female 7,131,745)
65 years and over: 4.4% (male 447,230; female 571,310) (2003 est.)
Median age:
total: 23.6 years
male: 23 years
female: 24.3 years (2002)
Population growth rate:
1.86% (2003 est.)
Birth rate:
23.7 births/1,000 population (2003 est.)