M’sia Named Asia’s 2nd Friendliest Country For Foreigners, Ranking Above Philippines, Thailand & More

Recently, Malaysia has been ranked favourably in tourism-related rankings by various publications and organisations, including the 10th trending travel destination by TripAdvisor, the world’s 18th best holiday destination by a UK-based non-profit organisation and the world’s 6th most visited city by Travelness.

Now, we can add one more to the list, whereby our country was just named Asia’s 2nd friendliest country in a ranking by Yahoo! Finance and Insider Monkey.

Listing the 15 friendliest countries in Asia, the ranking sought to list down the best Asian nations that welcome tourists, expatriates and immigrants with open arms.

Malaysia is the second friendliest country in Asia and 15th friendliest in the world

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In the ranking, Malaysia recorded a score of 2.20, making our country the second friendliest in Asia. Furthermore, the list also revealed that we are the 15th friendliest country in the world and the 16th most immigrant-friendly nation globally, with a “migrant stock in the population of 10.7%”.

Besides that, Yahoo! Finance and Insider Monkey also noted that Malaysia was ranked 25th best country for expats living by HSBC and that 26 million tourists travelled to our country last year thanks to a high visa acceptance rate.

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Malaysia’s high position in the ranking was also aided by how Passport Index 2024 naming our country as the world’s 4th most welcoming country in terms of visa on arrival and electronic travel authorisation (eTA) entry offered to traveling passengers.  

The top 15 friendliest nations in Asia

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the sole Asian nation that ranked higher than Malaysia, taking the top spot in the list thanks to how expatriates hold over 88% of the share in the country. Moreover, the country’s top spot was also aided by how HSBC also ranked UAE as the world’s 4th best country for expatriates.

Besides that, 6 Southeast Asian countries made it to the top 15 list, Cambodia at 13th, Thailand at 8th, Singapore at 5th, the Philippines at 4th, Vietnam at 3rd and of course, Malaysia at 2nd place.

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Here are the top 15 friendliest countries in Asia as per the ranking by Yahoo! Finance and Insider Monkey:

1. United Arab Emirates (2.52 score)
2. Malaysia (2.20 score)
3. Vietnam (1.67 score)
4. The Philippines (1.63 score)
5. Singapore (1.51 score)
6. Saudi Arabia (1.141 score)
7. Taiwan (1.36 score)
8. Thailand (1.32 score)
9. Turkiye (1.24 score)
10. Jordan (1.23 score)
11. Bahrain (1.20 score)
12. India (1.18 score)
13. Cambodia (1.00 score)
14. Maldives (1.00 score)
15. Sri Lanka (0.96 score)

Methodology of the ranking

According to Yahoo! Finance and Insider Monkey, the countries were ranked based on 4 sources, which include their previous 30 friendliest countries in the world and 20 most immigrant-friendly countries in the world lists, HSBC’s Expat Explorer rankings and Passport Index’s Welcoming Countries Rank 2024.

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They added that every Asian country’s rankings on each of these lists were observed and accordingly, a score was assigned to each nation by dividing their rank on each list with the total number of countries ranked on those lists. Scores were then aggregated to determine overall scores for each Asian nation.

So, what do you guys think of Malaysia’s place in the ranking? Do you agree that our country is the second friendliest country for foreigners in Asia?

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Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

Also read: “Best of the best” – Kuala Lumpur Named World’s 10th Trending Travel Destination in 2024