More than 54,000 Malaysians have renounced their citizenship in the past six years, said Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

"The have chosen not to continue to be a Malaysian citizen and they obtained the citizenship of another country," explained Zahid in his capacity as Home Minister.

He was responding to Mohamed Hanipa Maidin (PAS-Sepang) who asked for the number of Malaysians who have given up their citizenship from 2010 to 2016, and their reasons for doing so.

According to the parliamentary reply, 10,664 Malaysians had surrendered their citizenship in 2010 and it climbed to 11,080 the following year.

The numbers reduced to 8,983 and 6,678 in 2012 and 2013 respectively. In the year 2014, it saw 7,843 Malaysians renouncing their citizenship.

Last year, it climbed to 8,076 cases, making it an average of 22.12 Malaysians renouncing their citizenship every day.

Notably, the first month of 2016 saw a total of 1,102 Malaysian giving up their citizenship. Thus, currently, an average of 35.54 Malaysians are surrendering their citizenship every day.

Malaysian citizenship can be terminated through being deprived of it or surrendering it.

In its 2014 report, World Bank had pointed out that a total of 308,834 high-skilled Malaysans moved overseas.

Skilled Malaysian living abroad rose 300 percent in the last two decades, with two out of every 10 Malaysians with tertiary education opting to leave for Singapore or other countries.

A large portion of Malaysians abroad chose to be permanent residents in the countries they worked.