STARTUPS · CLOSURES · SURVIVAL · MALAYSIA
Is the business ecosystem expanding, churning or surviving?
The latest DOSM Business Demography signals enterprise formation, closure and five-year survival — a different lens from market size or establishment density.
LATEST RELEASE · 29 SEP 2026755,342 active enterprises← Business edition
Reference year 2025. Active enterprises increased 2.9% from 2024, while both enterprise births and deaths also increased.
60,671enterprise births · 8%
39,418enterprise deaths · 5.2%
72.5%five-year survival cohort
BUSINESS MOMENTUM · MALAYSIA
Formation, closure and survival can move in different directions at the same time.
Business demography is an ecosystem signal. It tells you how many enterprises are active, entering, exiting and surviving — not whether one new business idea will succeed.
ACTIVE ENTERPRISES755,342+2.9% vs 2024Reference year 2025BIRTH RATE8%+0.5 pp vs 202460,671 enterprise births DEATH RATE5.2%+1.3 pp vs 202439,418 enterprise deaths 5-YEAR SURVIVAL72.5%2020 birth cohort surviving to 2025Do not compare as if it were the same firms as the previous cohort.
HOW TO READ THIS
A high birth rate can coexist with high churn. Survival statistics are cohort measures, and state highlights are only shown where the official release publishes defensible values.
NATIONAL MOMENTUM · 2024 → 2025Formation, closure and survival moved in different directions.
2025 active enterprises
734,0892024
Published increase: 2.9%.
8% birth rate
55,3762024 · 7.5%
Birth rate moved +0.5 pp.
5.2% death rate
28,9242024 · 3.9%
Death rate moved +1.3 pp.
2020 births surviving to 2025
69.9%2019 births surviving to 2024
Different birth cohorts — do not read this as the same firms improving.
SECTOR DYNAMICS · 2025High startup rates and high churn can coexist.
9.3%enterprise birth rate
BIRTHS2,284
DEATH RATE4.9%
DEATHS1,193
5-YEAR SURVIVAL73.1%
10.3%enterprise birth rate
BIRTHS817
DEATH RATE6.6%
DEATHS524
5-YEAR SURVIVAL70.1%
10.9%enterprise birth rate
BIRTHS6,607
DEATH RATE4.6%
DEATHS2,763
5-YEAR SURVIVAL70.5%
11.4%enterprise birth rate
BIRTHS7,635
DEATH RATE5.2%
DEATHS3,477
5-YEAR SURVIVAL73.8%
7.3%enterprise birth rate
BIRTHS43,328
DEATH RATE5.3%
DEATHS31,461
5-YEAR SURVIVAL72.5%
STATE SIGNALS · 2025Only the state values explicitly published in the current release.
Largest published state totals
#1Kuala Lumpur244,406
#2Selangor201,111
#3Johor75,661
Birth rates above national 8.0%
Johor9.5%
Putrajaya9%
Kuala Lumpur8.5%
Selangor8.4%
Highest published death-rate states
Perlis6.2%
Selangor5.6%
Kuala Lumpur5.5%
Labuan5.5%
Highest published five-year survival
Sarawak79.5%
HOW TO USE THIS
Momentum tells you about business churn — not whether your idea will work.
A high enterprise birth rate can signal optimism, lower barriers to entry, market expansion or intense competition. A high death rate can reflect churn even in a large and active market.
Combine momentum with PulseKita's market size, household income, category density, district intelligence and commercial activity before drawing a business-location conclusion.
Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) · released 29 Sep 2026
Open DOSM release ↗