Malaysia has been internationally ranked in some unique categories over the years. Recently, our capital city Kuala Lumpur was listed as the No.1 city with the most skyscrapers in Southeast Asia and did you know that we also have the 2nd most expensive driving test in the world?
Reactions to these rankings have been mixed as some felt the sources were unreliable or felt there might have been a miscalculation during the data collecting process. So, how would you feel about knowing that Malaysia did not make it to the top 10 in the ‘Riches Countries in Asia’ category?
Yesterday (Thursday, 14th March), Seasia Stats released their Top 30 Richest Countries In Asia list on their social media pages. As seen in the post above, it was revealed that our country Malaysia is ranked no. 15 on this list with a total of $USD37,083 (RM174,382.81) GDP-purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita in 2023.
Surprisingly, our neighbouring country Singapore ranked No.1 with $USD133,108 (RM625,940.37) beating out other countries such as Qatar (No.2), Hong Kong (No.5) and South Korea (No.10). While Malaysia didn’t manage to grab a spot in the Top 10, we did manage to surpass Thailand (No.18), Indonesia (No.21) and Vietnam (No.24).
As for how the study was conducted, it was stated that the numbers were measured by dividing the countries’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by their population. Seasia Stats also explained in the captions that they used Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), which calculates values in international dollars by taking into account inflation and local prices.
Despite the explanation, some netizens weren’t fully convinced about how reliable the data collected was. Some said that Singapore should be lower while others speculated that Malaysia beat out Indonesia on the list because the former has been blessed by God. A few pointed out that some of the countries listed are not actually countries.
Do you agree with these numbers? Which country do you think deserves the No.1 spot?
