Matchup file

Malaysia vs Singapore

121 shared metrics.

MalaysiaLeads in 61

vs121 shared

SingaporeLeads in 60

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Malaysia leads by 1 metric. Use the same instinct in a quick real-data brawl.

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Country briefing

What matters for both sides

Short real-world notes so the comparison reads like more than a stat strip.

Malaysia

Quick notes before you compare the numbers.

Identity

Name origin: devised in the early 19th century by British geographers.

CIA 2026

Curated stat

Malaysia is split by the South China Sea: one part on the Malay Peninsula, another on Borneo.

Britannica

Singapore

Quick notes before you compare the numbers.

Identity

Formal name: Republic of Singapore.

CIA 2026

Curated stat

Singapore transformed from a low-income economy into a high-income economy after independence.

World Bank

Analysis

Malaysia leads in 61 of 121 shared metrics, while Singapore leads in 60.

Malaysia's Forest Area is 1260.7x that of Singapore (189.6K km² vs 150.3 km²).

Malaysia's Land Area is 456.6x that of Singapore (328.6K km² vs 718 km²).

Malaysia's Firms Hit by Power Outages is 187.6x that of Singapore (22.32% of firms vs 0.12% of firms).

Malaysia's Coal Electricity Share is 45.9x that of Singapore (44.56% vs 0.95%).

Malaysia's Water Withdrawal is 32.6x that of Singapore (6.7 B m³ vs 0.20 B m³).

Key Comparisons

Forest AreaMalaysia leads

Malaysia

189.6K km²

Singapore

150.3 km²

Land AreaMalaysia leads

Malaysia

328.6K km²

Singapore

718 km²

Firms Hit by Power OutagesMalaysia leads

Malaysia

22.32% of firms

Singapore

0.12% of firms

Coal Electricity ShareMalaysia leads

Malaysia

44.56%

Singapore

0.95%

Water WithdrawalMalaysia leads

Malaysia

6.7 B m³

Singapore

0.20 B m³

Agricultural Land (%)Malaysia leads

Malaysia

4.9% of firms

Singapore

0.98% of firms

395% higher

Comparison of Malaysia and Singapore across 121 metrics
				Winner
Forest Area	189.6K km²	150.3 km²	126072% higher	Malaysia
Land Area	328.6K km²	718 km²	45659% higher	Malaysia
Firms Hit by Power Outages	22.32% of firms	0.12% of firms	18763% higher	Malaysia
Coal Electricity Share	44.56%	0.95%	4591% higher	Malaysia
Water Withdrawal	6.7 B m³	0.20 B m³	3262% higher	Malaysia
Agricultural Land (%)	26.09%	0.92%	2738% higher	Malaysia
Political Corruption Index	0.32	0.01	2377% higher	Malaysia
Highest Elevation	4.1K m	166 m	2367% higher	Malaysia
Coastline Length	4.7K km	193 km	2322% higher	Malaysia
Renewable Energy (%)	8.3%	0.55%	1419% higher	Malaysia
Airports	100	9.0	1011% higher	Malaysia
Homicide Rate	0.73 per 100k	0.07 per 100k	963% higher	Malaysia
Road Traffic Death Rate	13.9 per 100k	1.9 per 100k	632% higher	Malaysia
Renewable Energy (%)	7.5%	1.1%	582% higher	Malaysia
Firms Asked for Bribes	3.8% of firms	0.58% of firms	562% higher	Malaysia
UNESCO World Heritage Sites	6.0 sites	1.0 sites	500% higher	Malaysia
Population	34.91M	6.08M	474% higher	Malaysia
Vehicles per 1,000 People	868.62 per 1k people	166.49 per 1k people	422% higher	Malaysia
Total CO2 Emissions	295.95 Mt CO2e	58.87 Mt CO2e	403% higher	Malaysia
Firms Making Informal Payments	4.9% of firms	0.98% of firms	395% higher	Malaysia
Infant Mortality	6.8 per 1k births	1.7 per 1k births	300% higher	Malaysia
Child Mortality	8.1 per 1k births	2.1 per 1k births	286% higher	Malaysia
Electricity Generation	198.22 TWh	59.61 TWh	233% higher	Malaysia
Protected Land (%)	13.3%	4.6%	189% higher	Malaysia
Electric Generating Capacity	37.22M kW	13.13M kW	183% higher	Malaysia
Teen Birth Rate	6.0 per 1k	2.2 per 1k	176% higher	Malaysia
Forest Coverage (%)	57.72%	20.93%	176% higher	Malaysia
All-Time Olympic Medals	15 medals	6.0 medals	150% higher	Malaysia
Armed Forces Personnel	136.0K	59.0K	131% higher	Malaysia
Scientific Publications	26.5K	12.7K	109% higher	Malaysia
Population Density	106.91 /km²	8.2K /km²	99% lower	Singapore
Water Stress (%)	1.2%	33.26%	97% lower	Singapore
Researchers	711.51 per 1M	7.9K per 1M	91% lower	Singapore
Current Account Balance (% of GDP)	1.6% of GDP	16.7% of GDP	90% lower	Singapore
Health Spending Per Capita	$458.22	$4,320.52	89% lower	Singapore
FDI Inflows (% GDP)	3.7% of GDP	27.76% of GDP	87% lower	Singapore
Youth Population (%)	21.79%	11.69%	86% higher	Malaysia
GNI Per Capita	$11,650	$74,750	84% lower	Singapore
Youth Unemployment Rate	11.95% of youth labor force	6.8% of youth labor force	76% higher	Malaysia
Official Languages Count	1.0	4.0	75% lower	Singapore
Insufficient Physical Activity	40.6% of adults	23.18% of adults	75% higher	Malaysia
GDP Per Capita (PPP)	$38,779.28	$150,689.3	74% lower	Singapore
EV Chargers per 100,000 PeopleSource: © OpenStreetMap contributors - Open Database License (ODbL)	0.59 per 100k people	1.9 per 100k people	69% lower	Singapore
Credit Card Ownership	13.18% of adults	41.74% of adults	68% lower	Singapore
Obesity Rate	22.4%	13.54%	66% higher	Malaysia
Spirits Consumption	0.11 L/person/yr	0.32 L/person/yr	66% lower	Singapore
Military Spending	0.99% of GDP	2.8% of GDP	65% lower	Singapore
Government Debt (% GDP)	64.3% of GDP	175.61% of GDP	63% lower	Singapore
University Enrollment Rate	38.5%	97.29%	60% lower	Singapore
Exports (% GDP)	71.34% of GDP	178.78% of GDP	60% lower	Singapore
Birth Rate	14.05 per 1k	8.8 per 1k	60% higher	Malaysia
Education Spending (% GDP)	3.5% of GDP	2.2% of GDP	60% higher	Malaysia
Alcohol Consumption	0.74 L/adult/yr	1.8 L/adult/yr	59% lower	Singapore
McDonald's Outlets per Million PeopleSource: © OpenStreetMap contributors - Open Database License (ODbL)	10.11 per 1M people	24.83 per 1M people	59% lower	Singapore
Tourist Arrivals	4.33M	2.74M	58% higher	Malaysia
Domestic Patents	883	2.0K	56% lower	Singapore
R&D Spending (% GDP)	0.95% of GDP	2.2% of GDP	56% lower	Singapore
Imports (% GDP)	66.02% of GDP	143.6% of GDP	54% lower	Singapore
Women in Parliament (%)	13.51%	29.29%	54% lower	Singapore
Beer Consumption	0.51 L/person/yr	1.1 L/person/yr	53% lower	Singapore
Broadband Access (%)	13 per 100 people	27 per 100 people	52% lower	Singapore
Electricity Use (Per Capita)	5.0K kWh/person	9.8K kWh/person	49% lower	Singapore
Foreign Patents	6.7K	12.6K	47% lower	Singapore
Fertility Rate	1.7 children/woman	1.2 children/woman	47% higher	Malaysia
Energy Use (Per Capita)	2.9K kg oil eq/person	5.3K kg oil eq/person	46% lower	Singapore
Freedom of Expression Index	0.59	0.40	46% higher	Malaysia
Merchant Fleet Size	1.8K	3.2K	45% lower	Singapore
Women in Senior Management	23.22% of managers	40.71% of managers	43% lower	Singapore
Elderly Population (%)	7.7%	13.66%	43% lower	Singapore
Big Mac Price	$3.39	$5.78	41% lower	Singapore
Food Waste per Person	209.53 kg/person/yr	149.57 kg/person/yr	40% higher	Malaysia
Corruption Perceptions Index	52 pts	84 pts	38% lower	Singapore
Smoking Rate	22%	16.4%	34% higher	Malaysia
Time Zones Count	2.0 time zones	3.0 time zones	33% lower	Singapore
Death Rate	5.8 per 1k	4.4 per 1k	32% higher	Malaysia
Suicide Rate	5.7 per 100k	8.1 per 100k	30% lower	Singapore
Shipping Traffic	27.29M	37.29M	27% lower	Singapore
Inflation Rate	1.8%	2.4%	25% lower	Singapore
Dependency Ratio	41.89% of working-age pop.	33.94% of working-age pop.	23% higher	Malaysia
Hypertension Prevalence	41% of adults	33.4% of adults	23% higher	Malaysia
GDP (Nominal)	$422,227,005,428.69	$547,386,645,891.85	23% lower	Singapore
Hospital Beds (per 1,000)	2.0 per 1k	2.6 per 1k	23% lower	Singapore
Urban Population (%)	76.92%	100%	23% lower	Singapore
Mobile Money Accounts	44.5% of adults	56.47% of adults	21% lower	Singapore
Electricity Carbon Intensity	601.97 gCO2/kWh	497.09 gCO2/kWh	21% higher	Malaysia
Unemployment Rate	3.8%	3.2%	20% higher	Malaysia
Health Spending (% GDP)	3.9% of GDP	4.9% of GDP	20% lower	Singapore
Solar Electricity Share	2.2%	2.7%	18% lower	Singapore
Mobile Subscriptions (%)	140 per 100 people	171 per 100 people	18% lower	Singapore
Digital Payments Used	77.47% of adults	94.84% of adults	18% lower	Singapore
Doctors (per 1,000)	2.3 per 1k	2.8 per 1k	17% lower	Singapore
Air Pollution (PM2.5)	16.19 µg/m³	13.87 µg/m³	17% higher	Malaysia
Firms with Female Top Manager	25.54% of firms	21.8% of firms	17% higher	Malaysia
Electoral Democracy Index	0.50	0.43	16% higher	Malaysia
GDP Growth Rate	5.1%	4.4%	16% higher	Malaysia
Minimum Paid Vacation Days	8.0 days/yr	7.0 days/yr	14% higher	Malaysia
Median Age	30.1 years	35.1 years	14% lower	Singapore
Human Development Index	0.82	0.95	13% lower	Singapore
Tobacco Use Prevalence	16.9% of adults	14.9% of adults	13% higher	Malaysia
CO2 Per Capita	8.2 t/person/yr	9.2 t/person/yr	12% lower	Singapore
Tax Revenue (% GDP)	12.56% of GDP	14.19% of GDP	11% lower	Singapore
ATMs per 100,000 Adults	51.84 per 100k	47.53 per 100k	9% higher	Malaysia
Life Evaluation Score	6.0 pts	6.6 pts	9% lower	Singapore
Life Expectancy	76.7 years	82.9 years	8% lower	Singapore
Average Weekly Work Hours	44.7 hrs/week	42.6 hrs/week	5% higher	Malaysia
Safe Drinking Water (%)	94.7%	100%	5% lower	Singapore
Internet Users (%)	98.02%	94.38%	4% higher	Malaysia
Sanitation Access (%)	96.02%	100%	4% lower	Singapore
Air Passengers	46.70M	47.50M	2% lower	Singapore
Women's Political Empowerment	0.77	0.79	2% lower	Singapore
Adult Literacy Rate	95.77%	97.65%	2% lower	Singapore
Liberal Democracy Index	0.35	0.36	1% lower	Singapore
High-Tech Exports (%)	58.63%	59.43%	1% lower	Singapore
Can Raise Emergency Money	89.37% of adults	90.15% of adults	1% lower	Singapore
Electricity Access (%)	100%	100%	equal	Malaysia
Nobel Laureates Born per Million People	0 per 1M people	0 per 1M people	ranked higher	Malaysia
Lowest Elevation	0 m	0 m	ranked higher	Malaysia
Irrigated Land	4.4K km²	0 km²	ranked higher	Malaysia
Land Border Length	2.7K km	0 km	ranked higher	Malaysia
All-Time Olympic Gold Medals	0 gold medals	1.0 gold medals	ranked lower	Singapore
Border Neighbors	3.0	0	ranked higher	Malaysia

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Malaysia Singapore

Analysis

Malaysia leads in 61 of 121 shared metrics, while Singapore leads in 60.

Malaysia's Forest Area is 1260.7x that of Singapore (189.6K km² vs 150.3 km²).

Malaysia's Land Area is 456.6x that of Singapore (328.6K km² vs 718 km²).

Malaysia's Firms Hit by Power Outages is 187.6x that of Singapore (22.32% of firms vs 0.12% of firms).

Malaysia's Coal Electricity Share is 45.9x that of Singapore (44.56% vs 0.95%).

Malaysia's Water Withdrawal is 32.6x that of Singapore (6.7 B m³ vs 0.20 B m³).

Key Comparisons

Forest AreaMalaysia leads

Malaysia

189.6K km²

Singapore

150.3 km²

Land AreaMalaysia leads

Malaysia

328.6K km²

Singapore

718 km²

Firms Hit by Power OutagesMalaysia leads

Malaysia

22.32% of firms

Singapore

0.12% of firms

Coal Electricity ShareMalaysia leads

Malaysia

44.56%

Singapore

0.95%

Water WithdrawalMalaysia leads

Malaysia

6.7 B m³

Singapore

0.20 B m³

Agricultural Land (%)Malaysia leads

Malaysia

26.09%

Singapore

0.92%

Forest Area

189.6K km²

150.3 km²

Land Area

328.6K km²

718 km²

Firms Hit by Power Outages

22.32% of firms

0.12% of firms

Coal Electricity Share

44.56%

0.95%

Water Withdrawal

6.7 B m³

0.20 B m³

Agricultural Land (%)

26.09%

0.92%

Political Corruption Index

0.32

0.01

Highest Elevation

4.1K m

166 m

Coastline Length

4.7K km

193 km

Renewable Energy (%)

8.3%

0.55%

Airports

100

9.0

Homicide Rate

0.73 per 100k

0.07 per 100k

Road Traffic Death Rate

13.9 per 100k

1.9 per 100k

Renewable Energy (%)

7.5%

1.1%

Firms Asked for Bribes

3.8% of firms

0.58% of firms

UNESCO World Heritage Sites

6.0 sites

1.0 sites

Population

34.91M

6.08M

Vehicles per 1,000 People

868.62 per 1k people

166.49 per 1k people

Total CO2 Emissions

295.95 Mt CO2e

58.87 Mt CO2e

Firms Making Informal Payments

4.9% of firms

0.98% of firms

Malaysia vs Singapore

Think you can spot the next winner?

What matters for both sides

Malaysia

Singapore

Analysis

Key Comparisons

All Metrics

Forest Area

Land Area

Firms Hit by Power Outages

Coal Electricity Share

Water Withdrawal

Agricultural Land (%)

Political Corruption Index

Highest Elevation

Coastline Length

Renewable Energy (%)

Airports

Homicide Rate

Road Traffic Death Rate

Renewable Energy (%)

Firms Asked for Bribes

UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Population

Vehicles per 1,000 People

Total CO2 Emissions

Firms Making Informal Payments

Infant Mortality

Child Mortality

Electricity Generation

Protected Land (%)

Electric Generating Capacity

Teen Birth Rate

Forest Coverage (%)

All-Time Olympic Medals

Armed Forces Personnel

Scientific Publications

Population Density

Water Stress (%)

Researchers

Current Account Balance (% of GDP)

Health Spending Per Capita

FDI Inflows (% GDP)

Youth Population (%)

GNI Per Capita

Youth Unemployment Rate

Official Languages Count

Insufficient Physical Activity

GDP Per Capita (PPP)

EV Chargers per 100,000 People

Credit Card Ownership

Obesity Rate

Spirits Consumption

Military Spending

Government Debt (% GDP)

University Enrollment Rate

Exports (% GDP)

Birth Rate

Education Spending (% GDP)

Alcohol Consumption

McDonald's Outlets per Million People

Tourist Arrivals

Domestic Patents

R&D Spending (% GDP)

Imports (% GDP)

Women in Parliament (%)

Beer Consumption

Broadband Access (%)

Electricity Use (Per Capita)

Foreign Patents

Fertility Rate

Energy Use (Per Capita)

Freedom of Expression Index

Merchant Fleet Size

Women in Senior Management

Elderly Population (%)

Big Mac Price

Food Waste per Person

Corruption Perceptions Index