๐ How Rare Are You in Malaysia?
๐ฒ๐พ Genetic Landscape of Malaysia
Malaysia is a genetic mosaic of three major groups: Malay, Chinese, and Indian, plus indigenous Orang Asli peoples. This multiethnic composition creates one of Southeast Asia's most genetically diverse nations. The Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia carry some of the oldest human DNA outside of Africa. The Malay Chinese community shows southern Chinese genetic profiles, while Malaysian Indians carry predominantly Tamil Dravidian markers. The indigenous peoples of Borneo (Iban, Kadazan) add further genetic layers.
The country is split by a sea, and the two halves are not run identically: Sabah and Sarawak in Borneo control their own immigration, so a Malaysian flying in from Kuala Lumpur shows documents on arrival. Names divide people along different lines again. Malay names are patronymic โ bin and binti, son of and daughter of โ so nothing is handed down as a surname at all. Chinese Malaysian surnames are romanised from the dialect a family actually spoke, which is why one character surfaces as Tan in Hokkien, Chin in Hakka and Chen in Mandarin, quietly pointing at the part of southern China the family left. Many Tamil Malaysians use a father's name shortened to an initial instead.
๐๏ธ Seventeen State Entries and 294 Country Records
Malaysia's National Registration Department — Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara, which registers births and issues the MyKad identity card — publishes the reference code lists that sit behind those records. One is the state code list, which runs to seventeen entries: the thirteen states, the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya, and one more. Most entries carry several codes rather than one. Johor is 01, 21, 22, 23 and 24. Sarawak is 13 and 50 through 53. The seventeenth entry is Negeri Tidak Diketahui — unknown state — code 82.
The companion country list runs to 294 records. Indonesia is 61, Singapore 66, China 74, India 75, Australia 83, the United States of America 91. Codes 71 and 72 are simply Luar Negara, abroad. Some records are not countries at all: one is labelled Stateless Person Article 1/1954, at code 98, and another Refugee Article 1/1951, at code 99 — a code that several rows share, among them Unspecified Nationality and Maklumat Tiada, no information. A register that keeps a code for no country, and a code for we do not know, is telling you something about the shapes a person can take in its files.
๐๏ธ Eye Color
| Dark Brown | 90% |
| Brown | 8% |
| Other | 2% |
๐ Hair Color
| Black | 92% |
| Dark Brown | 6% |
| Other | 2% |
๐ฉธ Blood Type
| O+ | 38% |
| B+ | 22% |
| A+ | 25% |
| AB+ | 6% |
| O- | 4% |
| A- | 2% |
| B- | 2% |
| AB- | 1% |
Trait frequencies on this page come from public and institutional datasets โ see Data Sources.
🧮 Calculate Your Rarity in Malaysia
Pick your eye colour, hair colour and blood type. The calculator uses Malaysia's own figures from the tables above, not world averages.
This is an estimate, not a measurement. It multiplies three national frequencies as if they were independent, and they are not: eye and hair colour share pigmentation genes, so a combination that tends to run together, such as blue eyes with blonde hair, is more common than the multiplication suggests, while one that rarely does, such as blue eyes with black hair, is rarer. Blood type is independent of both. The frequencies are national averages from public datasets — see Data Sources.
That number describes the body you were born with. Fraeon, our other site, does the same arithmetic for the part you chose: the films, series, games, books, anime and manga you have actually finished. Start your log →
๐ฉธ Where That Blood Column Stops Holding
The blood type table above gives one column for the whole country. A paper published online in 2023 in the Asian Journal of Transfusion Science, from the National Immunohematology Reference Laboratory at Malaysia's National Blood Centre, reports that the column has a different leader in one place. Among 1,213 voluntary donors recruited between January and December 2021, the authors write that blood Group O RhD positive was the most common in all ethnic groups except in Sarawak — where A RhD positive was highest among Iban donors at 37.4%, and A and B RhD positive were tied at 33.3% each among Bidayuh donors.
Two cautions travel with that. The authors note that the number of donors from each ethnic group was not equal, particularly in Sabah and Sarawak, where donor numbers were limited during the COVID-19 pandemic; the study does not publish a separate donor count for each group, so those Sarawak percentages rest on a base a reader cannot check. And donors are not a random slice of anyone: in the same study only 14 of the 1,213 were RhD negative, 1.15%. Read the blood type figures above as national approximations rather than counts.
๐ฟ Three Kumpulan, Eighteen Suku Kaum
Peninsular Malaysia's Orang Asli are not a single category in the state's own filing. The Department of Orang Asli Development — Jabatan Kemajuan Orang Asli, JAKOA, which sits under the ministry responsible for rural development — publishes its own classification: three kumpulan, with six suku kaum named under each, eighteen names in all.
Negrito holds Kensiu, Kintak, Lanoh, Jahai, Mendriq and Bateq. Senoi holds Che Wong, Mahmeri, Jahut, Semoq Beri, Semai and Temiar. Melayu Proto holds Kuala, Kanaq, Seletar, Jakun, Semelai and Temuan. Every table on this page reports a single national row. JAKOA's list is a reminder that the same government publishing those national figures also maintains a far finer grid over part of the same population, and keeps it in a separate place. Neither is wrong. They are answers to different questions, and the national percentage is the blunter of the two.
โญ Rare Facts About Malaysia
Which of these numbers has an institution behind it
Malaysia's population count is published by the Department of Statistics Malaysia, which states its figures include both citizens and non-citizens, but do not include temporary residents. The state and country code lists are the National Registration Department's own. The blood figures come from a study of volunteer donors by National Blood Centre staff, not from a census, and that study does not publish a donor count for each ethnic group. No Malaysian body records eye or hair colour, so those percentages are modelled estimates, not measurements, and we could not trace the average height figure to any institution. Last checked September 2026.