Quality of Life Comparison


If you lived in Japan instead of Malaysia, you would:


live 10.1 years longer

In Malaysia, the average life expectancy is 76 years (73 years for men, 79 years for women) as of 2020. In Japan, that number is 86 years (83 years for men, 90 years for women) as of 2020.

be 72.4% less likely to be obese

In Malaysia, 15.6% of adults are obese as of 2016. In Japan, that number is 4.3% of people as of 2016.


make 47.4% more money

Malaysia has a GDP per capita of $29,100 as of 2017, while in Japan, the GDP per capita is $42,900 as of 2017.

be 14.7% less likely to be unemployed

In Malaysia, 3.4% of adults are unemployed as of 2017. In Japan, that number is 2.9% as of 2017.

be 4.2 times more likely to live below the poverty line

In Malaysia, 3.8% live below the poverty line as of 2009. In Japan, however, that number is 16.1% as of 2013.

pay a 99.8% higher top tax rate

Malaysia has a top tax rate of 28.0% as of 2016. In Japan, the top tax rate is 56.0% as of 2016.


be 82.8% less likely to die during childbirth

In Malaysia, approximately 29.0 women per 100,000 births die during labor as of 2017. In Japan, 5.0 women do as of 2017.

be 83.3% less likely to die during infancy

In Malaysia, approximately 11.4 children die before they reach the age of one as of 2020. In Japan, on the other hand, 1.9 children do as of 2020.

have 60.1% fewer children

In Malaysia, there are approximately 18.3 babies per 1,000 people as of 2020. In Japan, there are 7.3 babies per 1,000 people as of 2020.


spend 25.5% less on education

Malaysia spends 4.7% of its total GDP on education as of 2017. Japan spends 3.5% of total GDP on education as of 2016.


see 6.4 times more coastline

Malaysia has a total of 4,675 km of coastline. In Japan, that number is 29,751 km.

Japan: At a glance


How big is Japan compared to Malaysia? See an in-depth size comparison.

The statistics on this page were calculated using the following data sources: The World Factbook, Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia, National Tax Agency Japan.


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