Transport and infrastructure in Malaysia
Our listing of the primary types of transport compares the infrastructure of Malaysia with the average of all countries in Asia. Overall, the main traffic and transport routes are well developed and in comparatively good condition.In terms of the length of its rail network, Malaysia ranks 100th in the world with 0.06 meters per inhabitant. In total, the rail network is 1,851 kilometers long. Freight traffic on the rails most recently totaled 817.65 million tons and kilometers traveled. Passenger traffic reached 929.34 million passenger-kilometers in 2020.
The waterways listed refer to inland traffic on rivers and canals. The number of ports includes those located on the 4,675 km of coastline. In 2021, about 28.26 million freight containers were transported.
› Airports in Malaysia
Back to overview: Malaysia
Road traffic
The network of roads and highways has a total length of 144,403 km. For each of the country's 33.57 million inhabitants, this corresponds to 4.30 meters. This puts Malaysia in 121st place in the global ranking. However, the country's size and population density of around 102 inhabitants per km² must also be taken into account. Countries with fewer inhabitants in the same or even larger area naturally achieve quite different values here and have to connect remote areas to the transport network despite a smaller population.With an average of 7356 traffic fatalities per year (2013 - 2019), road traffic in Malaysia is considered quite dangerous. This corresponds to 23.2 accident fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants per year. By comparison, this figure is 12.3 in the USA and 17.0 worldwide.
In Malaysia, left-hand traffic is the rule on the roads, i.e. you drive in the left lane and overtake on the right. Oncoming traffic comes to meet you on the right side. Here you can also find an overview of all countries with left-hand traffic.
Malaysia | |||
| total | per 1 mio inhabitants | per km² | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roadways | 144,400 km | 4,301.05 km | 437.13 m |
| Railroads | 1,900 km | 55.13 km | 5.60 m |
| Waterways | 7,200 km | 214.45 km | 21.80 m |
| Commercial harbors | 1,769 | 52.69 | 0.005 |
| Airports | 34 | 1.01 | 0.103 |
Asia | |||
| total | per 1 mio inhabitants | per km² | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roadways | 16,613,000 km | 3,524.24 km | 519.50 m |
| Railroads | 280,000 km | 59.41 km | 8.76 m |
| Waterways | 260,300 km | 55.21 km | 8.14 m |
| Commercial harbors | 45,998 | 9.76 | 0.001 |
| Airports | 1,012 | 0.21 | 0.000 |
Data sources used
• Global Health Observatory Data Repository (World Health Organization)• UNCTAD
• Internation Union of Railways (UIC)
• CIA Factbook
• OECD Statistics
• Wikipedia (german)
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