Sabah Ethnic Groups 2026 — 30+ Groups by Population

The most diverse state in Malaysia

Sabah stands alone among Malaysian states for its ethnic diversity. While Peninsular Malaysia is dominated by Malay, Chinese, and Indian communities, Sabah hosts more than 30 officially recognised ethnic groups — indigenous to the island or migrant communities. The largest indigenous groups are the Kadazan-Dusun, Bajau, and Murut; there are also Malay, Chinese, and a vast non-citizen population from the Philippines and Indonesia.

The distribution is remarkably even. Unlike Selangor or Johor, where one or two groups dominate, no single ethnic group in Sabah exceeds 21% of the population. This plurality shapes Sabah\u2019s culture and politics: unlike Peninsular Malaysia, where a single national narrative is enforced, Sabah\u2019s narrative is explicitly multicultural. Inter-ethnic marriages are common, code-switching between languages is normal, and cultural festivals are celebrated across lines. Yet economic and political power remain unequally distributed along ethnic lines.

The indigenous heart of Sabah

Indigenous groups — Kadazan-Dusun, Bajau, Murut, Rungus, Suluk, Lundayeh, Bisaya, and smaller groups — make up roughly 43\u201345% of Sabah\u2019s citizen population. Among these, the Kadazan-Dusun are dominant, with 698,300 people concentrated in the interior highlands and the Ranau\u2013Kota Belud corridor. The Bajau are the second-largest indigenous group, but are linguistically and culturally distinct: they are seafarers and fisher-folk, not hill farmers.

Why are there so many groups?

Sabah\u2019s indigenous diversity reflects its history as a meeting place. Over millennia, diverse groups migrated from mainland Southeast Asia, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Geography — jungle, mountains, and isolated coastlines — kept communities separated, allowing distinct languages, dialects, and traditions to develop. The term \u201cKadazan-Dusun\u201d itself blurs together distinct groups that share origins but have cultural and dialectal differences. Similarly, \u201cBajau\u201d encompasses both settled fishers and nomadic boat-dwellers with distinct identities.

Colonial and post-colonial census-takers (British, then Malaysian) imposed ethnic categories on fluid identities. Small groups were grouped together as \u201cOthers,\u201d obscuring their individual identities. Today, groups like Lundayeh, Timugon, and Inanam fight to be recognised separately in official statistics and policy, rather than subsumed under generic labels.

Geographic concentration by ethnicity

Ethnicity and geography are tightly linked in Sabah. The interior (Keningau, Tenom, Ranau) is overwhelmingly Kadazan-Dusun and Murut. The east coast (Tawau, Lahad Datu, Semporna) is dominated by Bajau and Suluk. Kota Kinabalu is the most diverse urban centre, but Kadazan-Dusun, Chinese, and Malay communities still cluster by neighbourhood. Chinese are heavily urban; indigenous groups are concentrated in their ancestral lands but increasingly urbanising.

The non-citizen population: Malaysia\u2019s hidden demographic

Sabah\u2019s most distinctive demographic feature is the large non-citizen population. The 2020 Census officially counted 810,443 non-citizens — 23.7% of the total, the highest proportion of any Malaysian state. But this is widely acknowledged to be an undercount. Academic researchers and NGOs estimate 1.5\u20132.0 million undocumented migrants, mostly from the southern Philippines (Moro communities) and Indonesia. If correct, non-citizens could comprise 30\u201340% of Sabah\u2019s de facto population.

Ethnic trends and future composition

Several trends are reshaping Sabah\u2019s ethnic composition:

• Urbanisation of indigenous groups: Kadazan-Dusun and Murut youth are migrating to Kota Kinabalu and Tawau for education and work, diluting the ethnic homogeneity of interior districts.
• Growing non-citizen share: While official non-citizen populations have stabilised, undocumented migrants continue to arrive, shifting Sabah\u2019s de facto ethnic composition.
• Inter-marriage: Marriages across ethnic lines are becoming more common, especially among educated urban youth, creating new mixed-identity communities.
• Religious identity replacing ethnic identity: For some communities (especially Bajau and Suluk), Islamic identity is becoming as important as ethnic identity for social and political mobilisation.

Frequently asked questions