Malaysia, one year earlier: the 2025 ethnic composition.
The original 2025 release reported Bumiputera at 70.5%, Chinese at 22.2%, Indians at 6.5%, and others at 0.8% of citizens.
An earlier release, preserved with its context
In the original 2025 DOSM summary, the citizen population was reported as 30.9 million. The ethnic breakdown of citizens was: Bumiputera 70.5%, Chinese 22.2%, Indians 6.5%, and Others 0.8%. The 2025 values were marked preliminary.
These percentages describe citizens, not all residents. They should not be relabelled as the ethnic distribution of the entire resident population.
Why keep an earlier snapshot?
A historical source helps explain why an older AI answer can differ from a newer one. Revisions and changing denominators can account for disagreement. This is a retrospective summary written on 27 September 2026, not a post written in 2025. See the linked counterpoint for a revision in the following year’s release.