KOTA KINABALU, Sept 8 — Sabah’s economy has turned a corner, even though numbers have yet to return to pre-Covid levels, said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.

Hajiji, who is also state finance minister, said that this was based on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the year 2021, which was RM78.7 billion, or a 1.1 per cent growth to 2020’s RM77.8 billion during the height of the pandemic.

"In 2020, Sabah recorded a decline of minus 7.8 per cent compared to 2019,” he said, adding that the numbers were based on a report by the Statistics Department issued in June 2022.

He said this during a ceremony to show the key findings for Sabah from the national survey at Wisma Wanita here today.

The service sector contributed the most to the GDP at 47.3 per cent, following by mining and quarrying at 26 per cent.

Sabah’s GDP per capita also increased to RM26,674 in 2021, compared to RM21,706 in 2020, which is still below the national average of RM47,324 for 2021, he said.

Meanwhile, according to the survey in 2020, Sabah’s population of 3.418 million increased by around 301,000 from 2010 to 2020, but was a slower growth of 0.9 per cent compared to 2.3 per cent in the previous decade.

Sabah’s population has more children — classified as those 14 years of age and below — at 26.5 per cent, compared to the national average of 24 per cent. The district of Putatan has the most concentration of youths at 34.5 per cent.

Sabah also has more men compared to women — 109 men for every 100 women.

The subnational statistics for each state constituency showed that the constituency of Karambunai has the highest population of households and housing, at 164,000 people and 35,463 homes.

The northern district of Banggi has the least number of populations and housing at 9,000 and 2,588 homes.

The state capital of Kota Kinabalu has the most residents at 500,421, followed by Sandakan at 439,050.