Cultural Legacy and Demography
Brunei is situated on the northwest of the island of Borneo, bordering the South China Sea on the north and Malaysia on all the other sides. The population in Brunei totals arond 500,000. The majority of Brunei's population, over 60 percent, is composed of Malays. About 15 percent of the population in Brunei is Chinese, and there is a smaller population of other indigenous groups. In addition, numerous foreign nationals, predominantly from other Muslim countries, have migrated to this oil-rich nation for work.
Brunei's culture is mainly derived from the Old Malay World known as the Malay Civilization. Other cultural elements and foreign civilizations have had an influence in Brunei's culture, such as animism, Hinduism, Islam and Western culture. Islam has had deep roots in the life of the people as well as in the culture of the country; it has been adopted as the state's ideology and philosophy. Due to its unique cultural and religious influence, Islam is the official religion in Brunei as stated in the Brunei Constitution. Other religions practiced in Brunei include Christianity and Buddhism.
Malay is the official language, but English, Chinese dialects, Iban and a number of indigenous languages are also spoken. English is especially important as a language of business and education.
In the realm of education, Brunei provides free education from pre-school upward. However, education is not the only area in which strong governmental support is provided. In fact, in this small and wealthy monarchy, there are a number of economic benefits, including subsidized food, fuel, and housing, free and universal medical care, as well as low-interest loans for government employees.
Human Development
The population of Brunei has a healthy life expectancy at birth of 75.96 years for the total population. The country has an infant mortality rate of 11.87 deaths/1,000 live births. In terms of literacy rate in Brunei, 92.7 of the total population (90.2 percent for the female population and 95.2 percent for the male population), age 15 and over, can read and write. About three percent of GDP is spent on health expenditures in this country.
One notable measure used to determine a country's quality of life is the Human Development Index (HDI), which has been compiled annually since 1990 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The HDI is a composite of several indicators, which measure a country's achievements in three main arenas of human development: longevity, knowledge and education, as well as economic standard of living. In a recent ranking of 169 countries, the HDI placed Brunei in the very high human development category, at 37th place.
Note: Although the concept of human development is complicated and cannot be properly captured by values and indices, the HDI, which is calculated and updated annually, offers a wide-ranging assessment of human development in certain countries, not based solely upon traditional economic and financial indicators.
Written by Dr. Denise Youngblood Coleman, Editor in Chief, www.countrywatch.com . See Bibliography for list of research sources.