The population of British Borneo

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Abstract
The population of British Borneo is small. Population growth since 1900 has been unspectacular but has been aided by Chinese immigration beginning from the middle of the 19th century until 1939, and also by the immigration of the Javanese and other peoples from the surrounding islands during the same period. The Chinese form by far the majority of the immigrant population and are important not only in terms of the numbers involved but also in terms of the powerful economic position assumed by them. Besides affecting population growth, immigration has also had significant effects on the population composition and also on the birth rates, death rates and sex ratio. The significant fact about the population composition is that the number of Chinese is very large. It is not often realised that, though forming the second largest group in each of the three territories, the Chinese together form the largest single ethnic group in British Borneo. The differential rates of growth in the various districts, owing largely to the presence or absence of immigrant populations and to the degree of economic development, have produced a very uneven distribution of population, with a very definite centering of peoples in certain areas. The coastal concentration of the immigrant peoples is another outstanding feature, a fact due as much to Borneo's position as it is to the easy entry by sea and difficult land access. These coastal pockets reflect broadly the former points of entry of the peoples, but such population centres are not necessarily stable since there was incomplete knowledge of the country during the period when immigrants were coming in, and the richer lands of the east coast were still undiscovered. It is clear that there will be further shifts of population centres when the advantages of the country are fully known. However, it is more important in this multi-racial society, that the ethnic types converging upon Borneo have been of separate groups and their movement has extended over different lengths of time, with the result that the country's ethnic map shows different degrees of their absorption into the Bornean setting. Absorption has been going on in some instances, but in view of the wide differences in economic status between immigrant and indigene, the fusion of the different groups is difficult.

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