KUALA LUMPUR — Ms Zalikha Mohd, who has been married for five years and has a three-year-old child, has always dreamt of having a large family.

But the rising cost of living has forced the 30-year-old and her husband to reconsider having even a second child.

Ms Zalikha, who works as a freelance direct-selling agent, while her husband works as a contractor, said the recent rise in fuel prices has stretched the family’s thin wages.

“For just one child, the cost of disposable nappies and milk is from RM500 (S$161) to RM600. I haven’t even factored in kindergarten next year, which will cost about RM500 a month,” Ms Zalikha told The Malaysian Insight.

Along with her three other siblings, she also supports her elderly and sickly parents. The elderly couple need RM200 (S$64.32) to RM300 for groceries and expenses, RM250 to RM300 for water and electricity, and RM500 to RM600 for medical expenses.

Ms Zalikha’s choice to keep her family small mirrors that of many other young families in Malaysia, who worry about their ability to provide for larger families.

This has led economists to fear the sooner-than-expected advent of Malaysia as an ageing nation, which will put a greater burden on the state to provide healthcare for its senior citizens, with lower contributions from a shrinking workforce.

According to Ms Rohani Abdul Karim, the Women, Family and Community Development Minister, Malaysia will be classified as an ageing nation when 15 per cent of its population are aged 60 years and above.

Currently, those aged 65 years and above make up 6.2 per cent of the 32-million population.

A report by the United Nations recently said Malaysia will become an aged nation by 2030, when the population of elderly doubles as family size shrinks. According to records from Malaysia’s Department of Statistics this year, the average family size had dropped to 4.06 compared to 4.09 last year. This number was even smaller in urban areas at 3.89 this year. In rural areas, the average size of families fell from 4.69 last year to 4.68 this year.

THE PRICE OF SINGLEHOOD

The trend of marrying later has also contributed to the decreasing size of families in Malaysia.

Ms Nur Jaslina Ramli, 28, is still not married as she says she is too busy at work, like her 31-year-old sister, who is also single.

“It’s not like I don’t want to get married ... I don’t even have time to find a partner. And even if I found someone, I’m worried about having to provide for children,” she said. She also worries about supporting a child as quality education is “expensive”.

Both sisters live with their parents and help to pay for the household expenses.

The social media executive said her monthly commitments included car instalments at RM350, repaying her National Higher Education Fund Corp student loan at RM500 and paying her insurance policy at RM173 a month.

She said other expenses, such as petrol, tolls, parking and other daily needs, reached RM1,000 a month. Women need to work even if they get married, as the cost of living is high, she said.

Ms Rohani, the Women, Family and Community Development Minister earlier this year urged parents to have four children, saying that it was the “ideal” number to complete a family.

Ms Rohani was responding to the declining birth rate in the country, following the fifth Malaysian Family and Population study.

“We can’t force people (to have more children) but we can encourage. The government, hopefully, will consider ways, but the reality is it is up to the couple to decide how many children they think is ideal,” she said in Parliament in May last year.

Dr Yeah Kim Leng, Professor of Economics at Sunway University Business School, said that ageing nations face lower tax revenue with smaller working-age populations, even while the governments spend more on healthcare and welfare for seniors, especially those with insufficient support from their children.

He noted that Malaysia still has a relatively young demographic profile and will only face the full effects of an ageing population in 15 to 20 years.

“With rising life expectancy and declining birth rate, the proportion of the senior citizens aged 65 and above is projected to rise further but still (stay) below 10 per cent by 2020,” said Dr Yeah.

He said it is important that Malaysia starts preparing for the situation when the number of dependents relative to working-age population starts to rise.

Last year, Putrajaya allocated RM25 billion for the construction and upgrades of hospitals and clinics.

Another RM4.5 billion was allocated for the running of clinics across the country.

The total allocation also included RM4 billion for supply of drugs, consumables, vaccines and reagents to all government hospitals and facilities. THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT