The Kedayan are an ethnic group residing in Brunei, Federal Territory of Labuan, southwest of Sabah, and north of Sarawak on the island of Borneo. According to the Language and Literature Bureau of Brunei, the Kedayan language is spoken by about 30,000 people in Brunei, and it has been claimed that there are a further 46,500 speakers in Sabah and 37,000 in Sarawak. In Sabah, the Kedayan mainly live in the southern districts of Sipitang and Beaufort, where they are counted as a part of the local Malay populace. Whilst in Sarawak, the Kedayans mostly reside in the towns of Lawas, Limbang and Miri.

Bruneian Malays are a native Malay ethnic group that lives in Brunei, the federal territory of Labuan, the southwestern coast of Sabah and the northern parts of Sarawak. The Bruneian Malays are a subgroup of the larger ethnic Malay population found in the other parts of the Malay World, namely Peninsular Malaysia and the central and southern areas of Sarawak including neighbouring lands such as Singapore, Indonesia and Southern Thailand, having visible differences especially in language and culture, even though they are ethnically related to each other and follow the teachings of Islam. All Bruneian Malays who are born or domiciled in East Malaysia even for generations before or after the independence of the states of Sabah and Sarawak from the British Empire through the formation of Malaysia in 1963 are also considered Malaysian Malays in the national census and were in the same status like the Malaysian Malays domiciled in Peninsular Malaysian states and the central and southern parts of Sarawak. They are also defined as a part of the Bumiputera racial classification together as a subgroup within the Malaysian Malay ethnic population along with the Kadazan-Dusuns, Orang Ulu, Ibans, Malaccan Portuguese, Muruts, Orang Sungai, Bajau, Suluks and the Malaysian Siamese.