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Malaysian community profile

Information about the Malaysian community in Victoria including where they live and when they arrived, languages spoken, English language proficiency, religions and significant dates.

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These profiles are of Victorian communities, using the best available data we have from the 2021 Australian Census.

The Census defines ancestry as the cultural or ethnic group you most identify with.

Malaysia is a very diverse country with many different ethnicities, languages and religions. Please note that this profile does not include people who identify with Chinese or Indian ancestry, and for this reason is not definitive.

There are limitations and challenges in assigning ancestry or ethnicity to a specific ‘community’, especially as defined by geographical borders.

History

Malaysians have a long history of migration to Australia. The first Malaysian migrants were pearl divers in the early 1900s. However, the Malaysia-born population in Australia remained relatively small throughout the early twentieth century due to the White Australia policy (The Immigration Restriction Act 1901).

With the end of the White Australia policy (1973), Australia became an attractive destination for primarily ethnic Chinese Malaysian immigrants. In the 1970s and 1980s, a significant number of Malaysians came to Australia for tertiary education.

This was partly due to the Colombo Plan, a scheme initiated in the early 1950s, where students from Asian countries, including Malaysia, were sponsored to study in Australia. Many of these students married locally and later sponsored their parents or siblings.

The largest wave of Malaysia-born people was after 1981, under the Family Reunion Program or as skilled or business migrants. The Malaysia-born population in Australia almost doubled from 1986-1991. Based on the 2021 Census, most of the Malaysian-born population arrived in Victoria after 2001, and there has been a steady growth in the community.

Malaysian community

The Malaysian community in Victoria is the largest in Australia. There are 62,662 people who were born in Malaysia and live in Victoria. There are also 20,920 people in Victoria who have Malaysian ancestry.

The gender breakdown for the Malaysian-born community is:

Most of the Malaysian community is young to middle-aged, with the largest cohorts aged from 25-34 (21.7%) and 35-44 (21.7%).

Insights for communication and engagement

The following are some key insights from the data when communicating and engaging with the Malaysian community:

For more insights about communicating with multicultural audiences, read the:

Better practice guide for multicultural communications PDF 3.35 MB (opens in a new window)

Better practice guide for multicultural communications - accessible version Word 2.33 MB (opens in a new window)

Location

Many people in the Malaysian community live in Melbourne’s south–eastern, central, and eastern suburbs.

The City of Monash is home to one of the largest Malaysian communities in Victoria, with 1,341 people. The City of Melbourne is next with 1,366 people.

The following 10 local government areas have the largest Malaysian communities.

Local government area Population
Monash 1,341
Melbourne 1,366
Greater Dandenong 1,952
Whitehorse 1,155
Wyndham 1,119
Boroondara 949
Casey 926
Manningham 935
Knox 888
Whittlesea 648

Malaysia-born population

The statistics below focus on people living in Victoria who were born in Malaysia. This will be referred to as the ‘Malaysia–born population’.

There are 62,662 people who were born in Malaysia and live in Victoria.

Language

These are the top languages spoken by the Malaysia-born population in Victoria:

English language proficiency

The Malaysian-born population in Victoria have medium levels of English language proficiency:

Religion

The Malaysia-born population identify with the following religions.

Years of arrival

There are two key points of arrival to Victoria for the Malaysia-born population. The majority of the population arrived between 2016-2021 (25.6%) and 2001-2010 (22.8%).

Year of arrival Number of arrivals Percentage
1951-1960 259 0.4
1961-1970 1,508 2.4
1971-1980 4,027 6.4
1981-1990 9,970 15.9
1991-2000 5,497 8.8
2001-2010 14,310 22.8
2011-2015 9,831 15.7
2016-2021 16,060 25.6

Names

Malaysia is a very diverse country and there are many different ethnicities, languages and religions. As a result, naming conventions will depend on a person’s ethnicity and religious background. The following are some general naming conventions in Malaysian culture.

Names usually follow the following order: [Given name(s)], [Patronymic noun], [Father’s given name]. For example, Razak bin Osman (male) and Aisyah binte Musa (female). The patronymic noun is the word ‘bin’ (meaning ‘son of’) for men and ‘binte’ or ’binti’ (meaning ‘daughter of’) for women.

In formal places or when meeting someone for the first time, Malay people generally use titles. In these situations, titles are used with a person’s given name rather than with the last name/father’s name. Some Malaysian Chinese who are Christian or speak English have an English name that they use in international and English-speaking contexts.

Significant dates

Malaysia is a nation with a strong religious identity, and many significant dates throughout the year are focused on religion or the country itself. Some of these dates follow the lunar calendar and may vary from year to year.

The following are some key dates of significance:

Sources of information

Communities

Updated 12 August 2025

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