• Official Name: Malaysia
• Land area: 126,853 sq mi (328,549 sq km)
• Government: Constitutional Monarchy
• Capital: Kuala Lumpur
• Climate: Tropical
• Terrain: Coastal plains and interior, jungle-covered mountains.
• Major languages: Bahasa Melayu (official), English, Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka, Hainan, Foochow), Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Panjabi, Thai and in East Malaysia there are several indigenous languages—most widely spoken are Iban and Kadazan
• Population: 24,821,286 (est. 2007)
• Currency: Ringgit (RM)

People

- Annual growth rate: 1.8%
- Life expectancy: 72.8 yrs
- Population density: 196 people per sq mi
- Ethnicity: Malay and other indigenous (58%), Chinese (26%), Indian (7%),  other (9%) (est. 2007)
- Religions: Islam (60.4%), Buddhism (19.2%), Christianity (9.1%), Hinduism (6.3%), Confucianism (2.6%), tribal/folk (0.8%), other (0.4%), none/unknown (1.2%)
- Languages: Bahasa Melayu (official), Chinese (various dialects), English, Tamil, indigenous
- Literacy rate: 89% (est. 2003)
- Compulsory education: 6 years
- Work force: 10.55 million (est. 2005)

Politics

- Government type: Federal parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarch
- Head of State: Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin ibni al-Marhum Sultan Mahmud (since 2006)
- Prime Minister: Abdullah Badawi (since 2003)
- Constitution: 1957
- Subdivisions: 13 states and three federal territories (Kuala Lumpur, Labuan Island, Putrajaya federal administrative territory)

Economy

- Annual GDP growth rate: 5.2% (est. 2005)
- Natural resources: petroleum, liquefied natural gas (LNG), tin, minerals
- Arable land: 5%
- Agricultural products: palm oil, rubber, timber, cocoa, rice, tropical fruit, fish, coconut
- Industries: rubber and oil-palm processing and manufacturing, light manufacturing industry, electronics, tin mining and smelting, logging, timber processing, petroleum production and refining
- Exports: electronic equipment, petroleum and liquefied natural gas, wood and wood products, palm oil, rubber, textiles, chemicals
- Imports: electronics, machinery, petroleum products, plastics, vehicles, iron and steel products, chemicals.
- Major trading partners: U.S., Singapore, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea, Germany, Indonesia

Transportaion

- Railroad: 2,418 km
- Highways: 65,877 km: 49,935 km paved (icluding 1,192 km of expressways); 15,942 km unpaved (1999)
- Waterways: 7,296 km
- Ports and harbours: Bintulu, Kota Kinabalu, Kuantan, Kuching, Kudat, Labuan, Lahad Datu, Lumut, Miri, Pasir Gudang, Penang, Port Dickson, Port Kelang, Sandakan, Sibu, Tanjung Berhala
- Aiports: 114 (2002)