The Population of Borneo: A Study of the Peoples of Sarawak, Sabah and Brunei (Reprint)

This is the first book-length demographic study of the Borneo States in the part of that island outside Indonesia-an area which has attracted considerable attention as a result of the recent ‘confrontation’ of Indonesia and Malaysia. Mr Jones was for many years a member of the North Borneo Civil Service, and he was administratively responsible for the 1960 population censuses of Sarawak and Brunei as well as North Borneo (now Sabah). He reviews the slow growth of population before World War II and contrast this with much more rapid growth of the last twenty years. The demographic characteristics of the individual communities in the multi-racial and ethnically diverse society of these Borneo States are analysed and differentials traced in the birth and death rates, in the degree of urbanization, extent of education and the like. The social economic implications for the future of the current rates of population growth are closely considered.

The author was formerly a Research Fellow of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, and is at present Regional Demographic Adviser of the United Nations at Beirut.