The article presents information on Malay population in the nineteenth century. So far as British Malaya as a whole is concerned, the first comprehensive census was taken in 1911 when the total population was enumerated to be about 2,650,000, of whom 46.8 percent were Malay, 6.4 percent Malaysian, 34.7 per cent Chinese, 10.1 percent Indian and 1.9 per cent others. All the published population estimates and statistics for the various states of the Malay peninsula have been brought together. The various estimates have been related to the social context in which they were made and to which they refer, in order to draw some general conclusions about the criteria by which such estimates may be judged. Three factors are responsible for the fluctuations in estimated population size. They are straightforward ignorance about the states, epidemics, and migration, either between the states themselves or fromoutside the peninsula, caused by wars, misrule or economic opportunities. [Download]