KUALA LUMPUR, April 4 — Concerns about the Covid-19 pandemic have had a particular impact on the prospects of starting or extending a family among Malaysians, a study by Ipsos Malaysia has revealed.

According to the findings from the “Balancing Family, Work & Life” study, more than a quarter or 26 per cent of Malaysian survey participants said they have delayed or decided against having a child or more children in the past two years.

A quarter or 25 per cent of respondents said their marital status was single and cited the lack of a partner as one of the reasons for not having more children.

The online study involved 20,524 adults aged 16 to 74 across 30 countries, whereby the Malaysian sample was 500.

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Ipsos Malaysia Head of Public Affairs Wan Nuradiah noted that reasons why people choose to delay or not to have children varied broadly from personal choice to macro level factors such as political instability. 

“The emergence of Covid has added an extra element of uncertainty — in Malaysia, concerns about the pandemic are the primary reason for delaying or deciding against having a child/another child,” she said.

Separately, the ideal number of children according to Malaysians is above three, considerably higher than many of its global peers.

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According to the findings, Malaysia ranked higher than its neighbour Singapore, the United States, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, South Korea and China.

“Even in the major North East Asian countries with lower fertility rates, the preference is at or below the replacement rate of 2.1.

“In countries like Japan, China and South Korea where the population growth is stagnating or declining, the preferred number of children is below the replacement rate,” Wan said.

Respondents also agreed that the choice to have kids in particular is a career-impacting choice although not as significant as those who choose to work from home regularly.

The findings found that 28 per cent of respondents said it was damaging for a woman’s career while 15 per cent said it was damaging for a man’s career to have childcare responsibilities.

Almost half of the respondents or 45 per cent said it was either equally damaging to both genders or non-damaging.

Yet, most of the respondents said working from home regularly (60 per cent) and taking on a part-time job (59 per cent) are either equally damaging or non-damaging to both genders’ careers respectively.

“Decisions to have children while building a career are often seen as a trade-off, and especially for women. 

“Although caring responsibilities are expected to have more of an adverse effect on women’s career, it’s not completely one sided — many Malaysians consider it a challenge that men face as well,” Wan added.