Malaysia
Name
| Official name | Malaysia — no longer form; Persekutuan Malaysia, the Federation of Malaysia, in the Constitution |
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| Former names | The Federation of Malaya (1948–1963) — Persekutuan Tanah Melayu; the Malayan Union (1946–48); the Federated and Unfederated Malay States and the Straits Settlements under Britain; British North Borneo and Sarawak of the Brookes; the Malay sultanates before |
| Demonym | Malaysian |
| Meaning of the name | Malaya with the Greek -sia — "the land of the Malays"; Malayu the Sumatran kingdom of the 7th century and its river; the name proposed in 1961 by Tunku Abdul Rahman for the wider federation |
| Motto | "Bersekutu Bertambah Mutu" — unity is strength; on the arms |
Quick facts
| Capital | Kuala Lumpur — the royal and legislative capital, founded 1857, the capital since 1896; about 2 million in the city, 8.6 million in the Klang Valley; Putrajaya, the administrative capital and seat of the government since 1999 |
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| Largest cities | Kuala Lumpur; George Town on Penang; Ipoh; Johor Bahru, the twin of Singapore across the strait; Shah Alam and Petaling Jaya of Selangor; Kuching; Kota Kinabalu; Melaka; Seremban; Kuantan; Alor Setar; Kota Bharu |
| Official language | Malay — Bahasa Malaysia, the national language under Article 152; English the second language of business, the courts in part and the professions; Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese and Hakka of the Chinese; Tamil of the Indians; the Iban of Sarawak and the Kadazan-Dusun of Sabah; Manglish, the street's English |
| Currency | Malaysian ringgit — MYR, RM; 100 sen; since 12 June 1967; about 4.2 to the U.S. dollar |
| Time zone | Malaysian Time, UTC+8; no summer time; the peninsula moved from UTC+7:30 on 1 January 1982 |
| Calling code | +60 |
| Internet domains | .my and .مليسيا |
| ISO 3166 codes | MY · MYS · 458 |
| Vehicle registration code | MAL |
| Driving side | Left |
| Electricity | 240 V, 50 Hz; plug type G |
| Independence | 31 August 1957, Merdeka — the Federation of Malaya from the United Kingdom, Tunku Abdul Rahman the first prime minister; Malaysia formed 16 September 1963 with Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore; Singapore separated 9 August 1965 |
| National days | 31 August, Hari Merdeka, Independence Day; 16 September, Malaysia Day, a holiday since 2010; the King's birthday, the first Monday of June; 1 May; Hari Raya Aidilfitri and Aidiladha, Chinese New Year, Deepavali, Wesak, Christmas and Thaipusam — the holidays of every faith; the rulers' birthdays in each state |
| Constitution | 27 August 1957 — the Federal Constitution, drafted by the Reid Commission, in force 31 August 1957 and amended for Malaysia in 1963 and some fifty times since: the federation of 13 states and 3 territories, the rotating King, Islam the religion of the federation with freedom of the others, Malay the national language, the special position of the Malays and the natives of Sabah and Sarawak in Article 153; the Malaysia Agreement of 1963 and its unmet terms the grievance of the Borneo states |
| Population | 32,447,385 at the census of 2020; 34.4 million (Department of Statistics, 2026 est.), citizens 31.0 million — from 8 million in 1963 |
| Area | 330,803 km² (127,724 sq mi) — land 328,657 km², water 1,190 km²; Peninsular Malaysia 132,000 km², East Malaysia 199,000 km² |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | The Jalur Gemilang — the Stripes of Glory — fourteen horizontal stripes of red and white for the thirteen states and the federal territories, a dark blue canton for the unity of the people bearing a yellow crescent for Islam and a fourteen-pointed star, the Bintang Persekutuan; designed by Mohamed Hamzah, a 29-year-old architect of Johor, chosen from 373 entries and first raised on 26 May 1950 with eleven stripes, the fourteen since 16 September 1963; named by Mahathir on 31 August 1997.Flag of Malaysia |
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| Coat of arms | A shield of the states — the five krises of the Unfederated states, the four colors of the Federated, the pinang tree and bridge of Penang, the tree of Melaka, the arms of Sabah and Sarawak, the hibiscus — under the crescent and star, held by two Malayan tigers, with the motto "Bersekutu Bertambah Mutu" in Rumi and Jawi; from the arms of 1950, amended for Malaysia and for the flower in 1988 |
| National anthem | "Negaraku" ("My Country") — the tune of the Perak state anthem "Allah Lanjutkan Usia Sultan," itself the French song "La Rosalie" that became "Terang Bulan," chosen by Tunku Abdul Rahman's committee and adopted for independence in 1957; the words of a committee, sung standing, protected by the National Anthem Act of 1968 |
| National motto | "Bersekutu Bertambah Mutu" |
| National colors | Red, white, blue and yellow — the royal yellow |
| National flower | The hibiscus — the Bunga Raya, the red five-petaled Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, declared by Tunku Abdul Rahman on 28 July 1960, its five petals the five principles of the Rukun Negara |
| National animal | The Malayan tiger — the harimau of the arms and the football team, fewer than 150 left in the wild; the Malayan tapir and the orangutan of Borneo; widely cited |
| National bird | The rhinoceros hornbill — the kenyalang of the Iban, the state bird of Sarawak, the "land of the hornbills"; widely cited |
| National tree | The merbau — Intsia palembanica, the hardwood of the rainforest, declared the national tree by the Forestry Department in 2019; the rubber tree of the plantations |
| National dish | Nasi lemak — rice cooked in coconut milk with sambal, anchovies, peanuts, cucumber and egg, the breakfast of the nation in a banana leaf; roti canai with dhal; the teh tarik pulled tea; the laksa of Penang and Sarawak; the satay; the char kway teow; the durian, the king of fruits; widely cited |
| National sport | Sepak takraw, the kick volleyball of the Malay world; badminton the game of the medals — the Thomas Cup of 1949, the first, and of 1952, 1955, 1967 and 1992, Lee Chong Wei's three Olympic silvers; widely cited |
| Symbol status | The flag by the law of 1950 and the Constitution, the arms by decree, the anthem by the Act of 1968, the flower by the declaration of 1960, the tree by the department's 2019 declaration; the animal, bird, dishes and sports widely cited |
Geography
| Location | Southeast Asia — Peninsular Malaysia from the Thai border to the Johor Strait and Singapore, between the Strait of Malacca and the South China Sea; East Malaysia on the north of Borneo with Brunei enclosed and Indonesian Kalimantan to the south; the two halves 640 km apart |
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| Land borders | 2,742 km (1,704 mi) with three neighbors — Indonesia 1,881 across Borneo, Thailand 595 on the peninsula, Brunei 266; the causeway and the second link to Singapore; the Spratly claims with China, Vietnam and the Philippines, and the Philippine claim to Sabah |
| Coastline | 4,675 km (2,905 mi) — 2,068 on the peninsula, 2,607 on Borneo; the Strait of Malacca, the busiest sea lane on earth, along the west; Sipadan, Perhentian, Redang, Langkawi and Tioman of the islands |
| Highest point | Mount Kinabalu, 4,095 m (13,435 ft), in Sabah — the highest between the Himalayas and New Guinea |
| Lowest point | The sea, 0 m |
| Mean elevation | 419 m (1,375 ft) |
| Rivers | The Rajang of Sarawak, 563 km, the longest, the river of the longhouses; the Kinabatangan of Sabah, 560 km, of the proboscis monkeys; the Pahang, 459 km, the longest of the peninsula; the Perak; the Kelantan; the Klang of the capital; the Baram; the Muar |
| Lakes | Kenyir, the largest man-made lake, 260 km², of the dam of 1985; Bera, the largest natural freshwater lake, a Ramsar site; Chini of the lotus and the legend; the Bakun reservoir of Sarawak, 695 km², the largest in Southeast Asia; Temenggor |
| Terrain | The peninsula's coastal plains under the Titiwangsa range, its spine at 1,000–2,000 m, Gunung Tahan 2,187 m the highest, the Cameron Highlands of the tea; the mangroves of the west and the beaches of the east; Borneo's coastal plains rising to the Crocker Range and Kinabalu in Sabah and the interior of Sarawak, the caves of Mulu and Niah, the peat swamps; rainforest over half the land |
| Climate | Equatorial — hot and humid all year at 27°C, about 2,500 mm of rain, the northeast monsoon of November to March that floods the east coast and Borneo and the southwest of May to September; the haze of the Indonesian fires each dry season |
| Natural hazards | Floods — the monsoon of December 2014 that put a quarter of Kelantan under water, the floods of December 2021 in Selangor and Pahang with more than 50 dead; the haze — the Southeast Asian haze of August 2026 that closed all 591 schools of ten districts of Sarawak; the earthquake of Kinabalu of 5 June 2015, magnitude 6.0, 18 dead on the mountain, and the magnitude 7.1 offshore of Sabah on 23 February 2026; the tsunami of 26 December 2004 with 68 dead on the west coast; landslides — Batang Kali of December 2022, 31 dead |
| Natural resources | Oil and gas off Sarawak, Sabah and Terengganu, Petronas the owner; tin, once the largest producer in the world, the Kinta valley mined out; palm oil and rubber land; timber of Borneo; bauxite of Kuantan; iron; gold of Raub; the rare earths of Lynas, refined at Kuantan from Australian ore, the largest plant outside China |
| Land use | Agricultural land about 26%, the oil palm above all; forest about 55–62% by the count, the primary forest far less; the Orang Asli's rally of 12 June 2026 for their land |
| National parks | Taman Negara, 4,343 km², of 1938–39, the rainforest of 130 million years, the oldest on earth; Kinabalu Park of 1964; Gunung Mulu of the caves and the pinnacles; Bako of 1957, Sarawak's first; Niah; Endau-Rompin; the marine parks of Sipadan and Tunku Abdul Rahman; the Danum Valley and the Maliau Basin, "the Lost World" of Sabah; Kuala Selangor's fireflies; Sepilok's orangutans |
| UNESCO World Heritage | 5 — Gunung Mulu National Park (2000), the Sarawak Chamber, the largest cave chamber in the world by area, and the Deer Cave of the bats; Kinabalu Park (2000); Melaka and George Town, the historic cities of the Strait (2008); the Lenggong Valley (2012), the Perak Man of 11,000 years; the caves of Niah National Park (2024), the deep skull of 40,000 years; the Mak Yong (2008), the dondang sayang (2018), the silat (2019), the songket (2021), the Mek Mulung (2023) and the kebaya (2024) on the intangible list |
| Administrative divisions | 13 states — nine with hereditary rulers: Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak, Perlis, Selangor and Terengganu; four with appointed governors: Melaka, Penang, Sabah and Sarawak — and the three federal territories of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan; each state with a Menteri Besar or Chief Minister and an assembly; the districts and the mukims |
People
| Population | 32,447,385 (census of 2020); 34.4 million (2026 est.), about 3.4 million non-citizens |
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| Population density | About 104 per km² (270 per sq mi) — Selangor with a fifth of the people, the peninsula with four-fifths |
| Population growth | About 0.5% a year (2026) — the citizens at 0.6%, the non-citizens falling; 12 of 13 states classed as aging |
| Median age | About 31 years |
| Life expectancy | About 76 years |
| Fertility rate | About 1.6 births per woman — below replacement since 2013, the Chinese lowest |
| Urban population | About 79% |
| Adult literacy | About 96% |
| Ethnic groups | Bumiputera 70.4% of citizens — the Malays about 58%, and the "sons of the soil" of Borneo: the Iban, Bidayuh and Melanau of Sarawak, the Kadazan-Dusun, Bajau and Murut of Sabah, and the Orang Asli of the peninsula; Chinese 22.4%, the Hokkien, Hakka, Cantonese and Teochew of the towns; Indian 6.5%, four in five of them Tamil; others 0.7% (2024); the non-citizens from Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar about a tenth of the whole |
| Languages | Malay by all as the national language, the Kelantanese and other dialects; English by about three in five, the medium of the private universities and the tech; Mandarin and the dialects by the Chinese, Tamil by the Indians; the Iban of Sarawak with 700,000 speakers; the 130 tongues of Borneo; the Chinese independent schools' graduates admitted to the public universities from 2026 on passing Malay and history |
| Religion | Muslim 63.5% — the Malays by the Constitution's definition, Sunni of the Shafi'i school, the sharia courts for them; Buddhist 18.7%, the Chinese; Christian 9.1%, the Borneo natives above all; Hindu 6.1%, the Tamils and Thaipusam at Batu Caves; Chinese folk religion 2.7%; Sikh, Taoist, none (census of 2020); Islam the religion of the federation, the "Allah" word and the conversion cases the courts' long quarrels |
| Human Development Index | 0.819 (2023 data, 2025 report) — very high; about 62nd of 193 |
| The Bumiputera policy | The New Economic Policy of 1971 after the riots of 13 May 1969 — the quotas and preferences for the Malays and the natives in the universities, the civil service, the contracts and the shares under Article 153, continued in every policy since; the Malay share of corporate equity from 2% to about 20% by the government's count; the emigration of the Chinese and Indian professionals its cost; the "Malaysian Malaysia" argument that lost Singapore |
| Sport | Badminton — the Thomas Cup five times and the first in 1949, Lee Chong Wei of the three silvers, Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik the world champions of 2022 and the bronze of Tokyo, Lee Zii Jia's bronze of Paris; squash — Nicol David, the world number one for 108 months and eight times world champion; the cycling of Azizulhasni Awang; sepak takraw; football's Harimau Malaya, the Olympic side of 1972 and 1980, the FIFA case of 2025–26 over seven naturalized players with forged papers that felled the association's executive on 28 January 2026; the Commonwealth Games of 1998; the Sepang Formula One of 1999–2017; the SEA Games hosted in 2027 |
| Diaspora | About 1.9 million Malaysians abroad — a million in Singapore, the daily crossers of the causeway among them; Australia, Britain, the United States, Brunei; the brain drain of the Chinese and Indian graduates the constant of the policy debate |
Government
| Form of government | Federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the Constitution of 1957 — the Yang di-Pertuan Agong elected for five years by and from the nine Malay rulers in the Conference of Rulers, in an order of rotation, the head of state; the prime minister commanding the Dewan Rakyat the head of government; the Parliament of two houses; the Federal Court; the 13 states with their own assemblies and governments |
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| Yang di-Pertuan Agong | Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar of Johor, since 31 January 2024 — the seventeenth King; born 22 November 1958, Sultan of Johor since 23 January 2010, the businessman ruler of the state opposite Singapore, of the private army and the collection of cars, the outspoken monarch of the "hunt for the corrupt"; sworn at the Istana Negara, crowned 20 July 2024; Raja Zarith Sofiah the Raja Permaisuri Agong; Sultan Nazrin Shah of Perak the Deputy King; his term to 30 January 2029, his son Tunku Ismail the Regent of Johor |
| Prime Minister | Anwar Ibrahim (People's Justice Party — PKR, Pakatan Harapan), since 24 November 2022 — the tenth prime minister; the student leader of the 1970s, Mahathir's deputy of 1993–98, sacked, beaten and jailed in 1998 on charges he called fabricated, the leader of Reformasi and the opposition for two decades, jailed again 2015–18 and pardoned by the King on 16 May 2018; born 10 August 1947 at Bukit Mertajam; named by the King on the fifth day after the hung parliament of 2022; the finance minister too; the "Madani" government of his slogan |
| Deputy Prime Ministers | Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (UMNO, Barisan Nasional), the president of UMNO whose 47 corruption charges were withdrawn by the prosecution in September 2023, a discharge not amounting to acquittal that the opposition and the reformers called the price of the coalition; and Fadillah Yusof (PBB, Gabungan Parti Sarawak), the Sarawakian, the first from Borneo; both since 3 December 2022 |
| The 2022 election | Held 19 November 2022 for the 222 seats of the Dewan Rakyat: Pakatan Harapan 82, Perikatan Nasional 74 — PAS with 43 the largest single party in the House, Bersatu 31 — Barisan Nasional 30, its worst ever, Gabungan Parti Sarawak 23, Gabungan Rakyat Sabah 6, Warisan 3, the rest 4; turnout 73.89%, the voting age lowered to 18; no majority for the first time in the country's history, five days of the King's consultations, and the unity government of PH, BN, GPS and GRS sworn 24 November with a two-thirds majority, confirmed by a voice vote of confidence on 19 December 2022 |
| The state elections | Sabah on 29 November 2025 — Gabungan Rakyat Sabah of Hajiji Noor returned, Hajiji sworn in for a second term on 30 November; JOHOR on 11 July 2026 — Barisan Nasional 48 of the 56 seats, its best since 2008, a supermajority kept under Menteri Besar Onn Hafiz Ghazi on a campaign of RM110 billion of investment and the royal house's activism, Pakatan Harapan "ceding ground"; NEGERI SEMBILAN on 1 August 2026, after Barisan Nasional withdrew from the state government on 27 April and the assembly was dissolved 5 June — BN 18 of the 36 (UMNO 16, MCA 2), Perikatan Nasional 7 (PAS 4), Pakatan Harapan 11 (DAP 9, PKR 2), the state PH had held since 2018 lost, BN and PN forming a government with a two-thirds majority, Ismail Lasim of UMNO sworn in as Menteri Besar on 2 August, "a seismic shift" in the Malay Mail's words; Anwar congratulating BN "on the mandate given by the people"; Melaka due by February 2027, Sarawak by April 2027 |
| The Najib pardon | Najib Razak, prime minister 2009–18, convicted on 28 July 2020 in the SRC International case of the 1MDB scandal — the state fund from which US investigators say US$4.5 billion was taken, more than US$1 billion of it into accounts linked to him, wrongdoing he denies — jailed 23 August 2022 for 12 years, the sentence halved and the fine cut to RM50 million by the Pardons Board under the previous King on 29 January 2024, the release set for 23 August 2028; convicted again in the main 1MDB trial in December 2025, 15 years and a fine of US$2.8 billion, under appeal; on 18 SEPTEMBER 2026 the King granted a conditional pardon to serve the rest of the sentence under house arrest to 23 August 2028 on paying the RM50 million — "a big win for UMNO," the political scientists said, "the government in waiting"; Zahid's thanks to the King and the fund to pay the fine; Anwar's alliance, which had opposed leniency, left to "explain the constitutionality and the limitations" |
| Parliament | The Parliament — the Dewan Rakyat of 222 members elected for five years from single-member constituencies, Johari Abdul (PKR) the Speaker since 19 December 2022, Hamzah Zainudin (Bersatu) the opposition leader; the Dewan Negara of 70 senators, 26 elected by the state assemblies and 44 appointed, Awang Bemee Awang Ali Basah the president; the anti-hopping law of 2022 against the defections that made the "Sheraton Move" |
| The next election | The 16th general election due by February 2028 — the speculation of late 2026 or early 2027, the push to hold the state polls with it; "I might consider" a snap poll, Anwar said, if the rifts deepen |
| The corruption cases | The two former generals — the former chief of the armed forces Mohd Nizam Jaffar and the former army chief Muhammad Hafizuddeain Jantan — charged on 22 January 2026 with money laundering and abuse of power over defense procurement, the largest military case in the country's history, the King's "hunt for the corrupt" behind it; former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob charged on 27 August 2026 with failing to declare his assets after the cash seized in 2025; the ex-premier Muhyiddin Yassin's charges of 2023–24; the resignation of Anwar's political secretary over a Sabah mining bribe; the Anti-Corruption Commission called a tool by the opposition and the reformers' champion by the government |
| Legal system | English common law with the sharia courts for Muslims in family and religious matters — the dual system of the Constitution; the Federal Court, the Court of Appeal and the High Courts of Malaya and of Sabah and Sarawak; the death penalty no longer mandatory since 2023; the Sedition Act and the Online Safety Act of 1 January 2026, the age check of December 2026 that bars the under-16 from social media, the blocking of Grok in January 2026 and of Grindr and Blued in February; the Pastor Raymond Koh abduction of 2017 and the report released 2026 |
| Sabah and Sarawak | The Borneo states of the Malaysia Agreement of 1963 with powers the peninsula's states lack — immigration, land, forests — and the demand for the rest: Sabah's 40% of its federal revenue, ruled its right by the High Court in December 2024 and fought on appeal; Sarawak's oil and gas under Petros against Petronas; the "MA63" amendment of 2021 restoring the equal-partner language; Gabungan Parti Sarawak and Gabungan Rakyat Sabah the kingmakers of every government since 2020; the Philippine claim to Sabah and the Lahad Datu incursion of 2013 |
| Defense | The Malaysian Armed Forces of about 110,000 — the army, the navy of the two coasts, the air force; the Five Power Defence Arrangements of 1971 with Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore; the littoral combat ships scandal of RM9 billion; the South China Sea patrols against China's coast guard off Sarawak; no conscription |
| Foreign policy | ASEAN, a founder of 1967 and the chair of 2025 — the Thai–Cambodian ceasefire brokered by Anwar at Putrajaya on 28 July 2025 and the Kuala Lumpur accord signed with Trump on 26 October 2025; the ban on Israelis and Israeli ships, the Gaza cause, the U.S. summons of the ambassador over it on 24 July 2026; the tanker passage through Hormuz agreed with Iran on 27 March 2026 in the Iran war; the Petronas fuel-for-LNG pact with Australia of 16 April 2026; the Rohingya, 5,000 to be taken back by Myanmar by the agreement of 29 July 2026; the tightrope between Washington, the largest investor, and Beijing, the largest trader; a BRICS partner since 2025 |
| United Nations | Member since 17 September 1957; Security Council seats in 1965, 1989–90, 1999–2000 and 2015–16; the peacekeepers of Somalia, Bosnia and Lebanon |
| Other memberships | ASEAN; the Commonwealth, the Games hosted 1998; the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, a founder; the Non-Aligned Movement; APEC, hosted 1998 and 2020; the CPTPP; the RCEP; the WTO; the D-8; the BRICS partnership |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$470 billion (2025, IMF) — the sixth economy of ASEAN by size after Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines, the third by the head |
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| GDP per capita | About US$13,500 (2025) — the high-income line of the World Bank in sight |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$40,000 (2025) |
| GDP growth | About 4–5% a year — 5.1% in 2024, about 4.4% in 2025 under the tariffs; inflation about 1.5%; unemployment about 3%; the ringgit the best Asian currency of 2024 and about 4.2 to the dollar |
| Economy by sector | Services about 55%, industry about 37%, agriculture about 7% |
| Currency | Malaysian ringgit (MYR) |
| Electronics and the chips | About 40% of exports — the packaging and testing of an eighth of the world's chips in Penang, the "Silicon Valley of the East" since Intel came in 1972, Infineon's silicon-carbide plant at Kulim, the largest of its kind, Micron, AMD, the Texas Instruments and Bosch plants; the data centers of Johor, the fastest-growing hub in the world by 2025 on Singapore's overflow, and the U.S. rules on the chips that reach China through them; the semiconductor strategy of 2024 for the front end |
| Petronas and the oil | Petronas, the state oil company of 1974, the owner of the country's oil and gas by the Petroleum Development Act — about US$70 billion of revenue, the largest company of Southeast Asia, the builder of the Twin Towers and the paymaster of a fifth of the budget; about 600,000 barrels a day and the LNG of Bintulu, the third-largest exporter; the quarrel with Sarawak's Petros over the gas |
| Palm oil and rubber | The second producer of palm oil in the world after Indonesia — about 19 million metric tons, a quarter of the world's, Sime Darby, IOI and FGB, the plantations of the Bumiputera settlers of FELDA since 1956, the EU's deforestation rules the fight; the rubber gloves — about 60% of the world's, Top Glove and Hartalega, the boom and bust of the pandemic; the durian for China; the cocoa; the rice of Kedah |
| Industry | Proton of 1983, Mahathir's national car, now Geely's, and Perodua, the best-seller, its first EV of December 2025; the steel; the petrochemicals of Pengerang; the aerospace parts; the Islamic finance of Kuala Lumpur, the largest sukuk market in the world; the Bursa Malaysia |
| Trade and the tariffs | Exports about US$330 billion — chips and electrical goods, oil and gas, palm oil, chemicals — to Singapore, China, the United States and Japan; the U.S. reciprocal tariff of 25% cut to 19% by the deal of August 2025 and signed with Trump at the ASEAN summit of October 2025, then the added 10% of 24 July 2026 on "forced labor" in the supply chain; China the largest trading partner since 2009 |
| Tourism | About 38 million arrivals in 2025 on the visa-free entry for the Chinese and Indians, the record, and Visit Malaysia Year 2026 with a target of 35.6 million — Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Langkawi, Melaka, Sabah's Sipadan and Kinabalu; the medical tourism of Penang |
| Public finances | Public debt about 64% of GDP; the deficit cut toward 3.8% in 2025 by the subsidy reforms — diesel targeted in June 2024, the RON95 petrol subsidy limited to citizens and 300 liters a month in September 2025, the sales and service tax widened 1 July 2025; the 13th Malaysia Plan of 2026–30; the 1MDB debts still being paid; the civil-service raise of 2024 |
| Income classification | Upper-middle income (World Bank) — high-income status expected by the government about 2028 |
Transport & infrastructure
| Main airports | Kuala Lumpur International Airport at Sepang, of 1998 — about 60 million passengers, the two terminals and the aerotrain of 2025; Penang; Kota Kinabalu; Kuching; Senai at Johor Bahru; Langkawi; Subang for the turboprops |
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| Airlines | Malaysia Airlines, of 1972, the flag carrier of the losses of MH370 on 8 March 2014, vanished with 239 aboard, and MH17 shot down over Ukraine on 17 July 2014 with 298; AirAsia, the low-cost giant of Tony Fernandes, the largest in Asia by its fleet; Batik Air; Firefly; MASwings of Borneo |
| Main ports | Port Klang — Westports and Northport, about 15 million containers, the twelfth-busiest in the world; Tanjung Pelepas in Johor, Maersk's hub, about 12 million; Penang; Bintulu of the LNG; Kuantan of the bauxite and the Chinese park; the Strait of Malacca's 90,000 ships a year |
| Railways | About 1,850 km (1,150 mi) of the meter gauge of KTM — the West Coast line from Padang Besar to Johor Bahru electrified and doubled, the ETS trains at 140 km/h; the East Coast Rail Link of 665 km from Kota Bharu to Port Klang, built by China for RM50 billion, opening in 2027; the Kuala Lumpur MRT of two lines, the LRT, the monorail and the KTM Komuter; the RTS Link to Singapore across the strait, opening January 2027; the Kuala Lumpur–Singapore high-speed rail shelved 2021; Sabah's line of the North Borneo Railway; Sarawak none |
| Roads | About 290,000 km (180,000 mi); the North–South Expressway of PLUS, 772 km from the Thai border to Johor Bahru, the spine since 1994; the Pan Borneo Highway under construction; the Penang Bridge of 1985 and the Second Penang Bridge of 2014, 24 km, the longest in Southeast Asia; the Johor–Singapore Causeway of 1924, the busiest border crossing in the world with 350,000 a day |
| Landmarks | The Petronas Twin Towers of 1998, 452 m, the tallest buildings in the world until 2004 and the tallest twins still; Merdeka 118 of 2023, 679 m, the second-tallest building on earth; the KL Tower; the Batu Caves and their 272 steps |
History in dates
| c. 40,000 years ago | The deep skull of Niah — the oldest modern human of Southeast Asia |
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| c. 9000 BC | The Perak Man of the Lenggong Valley |
| c. 100 | The Bujang Valley of Kedah — the first kingdom |
| c. 1400 | Parameswara founds Melaka; Islam by the 1430s |
| 1511 | The Portuguese take Melaka, 24 August |
| 1641 | The Dutch take Melaka |
| 1786 | Francis Light at Penang, 11 August |
| 1824 | The Anglo-Dutch treaty divides the Malay world |
| 1826 | The Straits Settlements |
| 1841 | James Brooke the Rajah of Sarawak |
| 1874 | The Pangkor Treaty — the British residents |
| 1895 | The Federated Malay States |
| 1941 | The Japanese land at Kota Bharu, 8 December; Singapore falls, 15 February 1942 |
| 1948 | The Federation of Malaya, 1 February; the Emergency, 16 June — to 1960 |
| 1955 | The first election, 27 July — the Alliance |
| 1957 | Merdeka, 31 August — Tunku Abdul Rahman |
| 1963 | Malaysia, 16 September; the Konfrontasi with Indonesia, to 1966 |
| 1965 | Singapore expelled, 9 August |
| 1969 | The riots of 13 May — 196 dead by the official count |
| 1971 | The New Economic Policy |
| 1981 | Mahathir prime minister, 16 July — for 22 years |
| 1998 | The crisis; Anwar sacked, 2 September — Reformasi; the Petronas Towers |
| 2009 | Najib prime minister, 3 April |
| 2014 | MH370 lost, 8 March; MH17 shot down, 17 July |
| 2015 | 1MDB — the US$681 million in Najib's account revealed, 2 July |
| 2018 | The election of 9 May — Barisan Nasional loses for the first time; Mahathir at 92 |
| 2020 | The Sheraton Move; Muhyiddin, 1 March |
| 2022 | Najib jailed, 23 August; the hung parliament, 19 November; Anwar, 24 November |
| 2024 | Sultan Ibrahim King, 31 January; Najib's sentence halved, 29 January |
| 2025 | The ASEAN chair; the Thai–Cambodian ceasefire, 28 July; the Trump accord, 26 October; Sabah votes, 29 November; Najib's 1MDB verdict, December |
| 2026 | The generals charged, 22 January; the Sabah quake, 23 February; Johor, 11 July; Negeri Sembilan, 1 August; the haze, August; Ismail Sabri charged, 27 August; Najib's house arrest, 18 September |
Records & firsts
| The only rotating elective monarchy | Nine rulers, five years each |
|---|---|
| The tallest twin towers | Petronas, 452 m |
| The second-tallest building on earth | Merdeka 118, 679 m |
| The largest cave chamber | The Sarawak Chamber, Mulu |
| The oldest rainforest | Taman Negara, 130 million years |
| The largest flower | The Rafflesia of Borneo |
| The highest peak between the Himalayas and New Guinea | Kinabalu, 4,095 m |
| The first winners of the Thomas Cup | 1949 |
| The second producer of palm oil | A quarter of the world's |
| The world's rubber gloves | About 60% |
| The busiest border crossing | The Johor causeway |
| The longest bridge in Southeast Asia | The Second Penang Bridge, 24 km |
| A prime minister jailed, then pardoned to house arrest | Najib, 2022–26 |
| The first hung parliament | 19 November 2022 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Malaysia?
Malaysia — no longer form, the name of the federation formed on 16 September 1963 when the Federation of Malaya, independent of Britain since 31 August 1957, joined with Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore; Singapore left in 1965. The name is Malaya with the Greek ending, the "land of the Malays," Malaya itself from the Malayu kingdom of Sumatra of the 7th century, the Melayu river; the federation is 13 states and three federal territories, nine of the states with their own hereditary rulers, who elect the King among themselves every five years.
What is the capital of Malaysia?
Kuala Lumpur — "muddy confluence," the tin miners' camp of 1857 where the Klang and Gombak rivers meet, the capital of the Federated Malay States from 1896 and of the country since — the royal and legislative capital, seat of the King and Parliament, with the Petronas Towers; about 2 million people in the city and 8.6 million in the Klang Valley. Putrajaya, the planned city 25 km south, has been the seat of the federal government and the prime minister since 1999; Labuan is the third federal territory. George Town, Ipoh, Johor Bahru, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu are the other great cities.
How big is Malaysia, and how many people live there?
About 330,803 km² (127,724 sq mi) — a little larger than New Mexico, about the size of Norway — in two halves 640 km apart across the South China Sea: Peninsular Malaysia, from the Thai border to Singapore, and East Malaysia, the states of Sabah and Sarawak on the northern third of Borneo, which hold three-fifths of the land and a fifth of the people. The census of 2020 counted 32,447,385 people; the Department of Statistics estimates 34.4 million for 2026, about 3.4 million of them non-citizens, growing half a percent a year, with 12 of the 13 states now classed as aging. The Bumiputera — the Malays and the native peoples of Borneo — are about 70 percent of citizens, the Chinese 22 and the Indians 6.5.
What are the highest and lowest points of Malaysia?
Mount Kinabalu, 4,095 m (13,435 ft), in Sabah — the highest mountain between the Himalayas and New Guinea, a granite dome above the rainforest of Kinabalu Park, a World Heritage site since 2000, climbed by thousands each year and shaken by the earthquake of 2015 that killed 18 on its slopes; and the sea. The peninsula's spine is the Titiwangsa range, its highest Gunung Tahan at 2,187 m in Taman Negara, the rainforest older than the Amazon; the Rajang, 563 km, in Sarawak is the longest river, the Pahang the longest of the peninsula.
What currency does Malaysia use?
The Malaysian ringgit (ISO code MYR, RM), of 100 sen, issued by Bank Negara since 12 June 1967 in place of the Malaya and British Borneo dollar — "ringgit" the Malay for the jagged edge of the Spanish silver dollar, the name made official in 1975 — at about 4.2 to the U.S. dollar, pegged at 3.80 from the crisis of 1998 to 2005 and floated since. Clocks keep Malaysian Time, UTC+8, all year, the peninsula having moved half an hour forward on 1 January 1982 to match Borneo; Malaysia drives on the left.
Who governs Malaysia?
Sultan Ibrahim of Johor, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong — the King — since 31 January 2024, the seventeenth in the rotation among the nine hereditary rulers that makes Malaysia the world's only elective, rotating monarchy, for a term to 2029; and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of the People's Justice Party, head of government since 24 November 2022, when the King named him after the election of 19 November 2022 produced the first hung parliament in the country's history and his Pakatan Harapan joined its old enemy UMNO's Barisan Nasional and the Borneo parties in a "unity government." The coalition frayed in 2026 — Barisan Nasional swept Johor on 11 July and took Negeri Sembilan from Anwar's alliance on 1 August with the opposition's help, and on 18 September the King granted the jailed former prime minister Najib Razak a conditional pardon to serve the rest of his 1MDB sentence under house arrest, which UMNO hailed and Anwar's side had opposed. The next general election is due by February 2028; Anwar has said he might call it early if the rifts deepen.
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