Compare
Brunei vs Malaysia
How Brunei and Malaysia compare on 36 measures, from 1820 to 2025. The main differences:
- Life expectancy · In 2023, Malaysia was higher: 76.7 years against 75.3 years
- GDP per person · In 2025, Brunei was higher: $29,530 against $12,350
- Population · In 2023, Malaysia was higher: 35.1 million people against 458,900 people
- Military spending · In 2024, Brunei was higher: 3.65% of GDP against 1.04% of GDP
- CO₂ per person · In 2024, Brunei was higher: 20.24 tonnes against 8.32 tonnes
Every measure
Health
- Life expectancyBrunei: 75.3 years in 2023Malaysia: 76.7 years in 2023
- Child mortalityBrunei: 1 per 100 live births in 2024Malaysia: 0.8 per 100 live births in 2024
- Infant mortalityBrunei: 8.1 per 1,000 live births in 2023Malaysia: 6.4 per 1,000 live births in 2023
- DepressionBrunei: 2.56% in 2017Malaysia: 3.52% in 2017
- Suicide rateBrunei: 6.2 per 100,000 people in 2017Malaysia: 7.8 per 100,000 people in 2017
People
- PopulationBrunei: 458,900 people in 2023Malaysia: 35.1 million people in 2023
- Population growthBrunei: 0.84% a year in 2023Malaysia: 1.24% a year in 2023
- Fertility rateBrunei: 1.75 births per woman in 2023Malaysia: 1.55 births per woman in 2023
- Urban populationBrunei: 75% in 2025Malaysia: 77.4% in 2025
- Median ageBrunei: 31.8 years in 2023Malaysia: 30.1 years in 2023
- People aged 65 and overBrunei: 6.5% in 2023Malaysia: 7.5% in 2023
- Net migration rateBrunei: 0 per 1,000 people in 2023Malaysia: 5.2 per 1,000 people in 2023
Economy
Education
Conflict
Military
- Military spendingBrunei: 3.65% of GDP in 2024Malaysia: 1.04% of GDP in 2025
- Military spending in US dollarsBrunei: $560M in 2024Malaysia: $4.55B in 2025
- Military spending per personBrunei: $1,216 in 2024Malaysia: $138 in 2025
- Military share of state spendingBrunei: 12.2% of government spending in 2024Malaysia: 4.4% of government spending in 2025
- Armed forces personnelBrunei: 8,000 people in 2020Malaysia: 136,000 people in 2020
- National powerBrunei: 0.02% of world capability in 2022Malaysia: 0.46% of world capability in 2022
- Armed forces, share of workersBrunei: 3.57% of the labour force in 2020Malaysia: 0.81% of the labour force in 2020
- Arms importsBrunei: 28 million TIV in 2024Malaysia: 7 million TIV in 2024
- Arms exportsBrunei: 12 million TIV in 2016Malaysia: 20 million TIV in 2024
Climate
Technology and environment
Each country on its own
Good to know
- Sources: UN, Gapminder and UN IGME, IHME, World Bank, IMF, UNESCO, Our World in Data, UCDP, SIPRI, IISS, Correlates of War, ERA5, CMIP6, EDGAR, ITU and FAO. Each measure’s page names its own and what it counts.
- Values are drawn on today’s borders. Years without a published value are left empty, never filled in.
How the layers work, where their data comes from and what they can’t tell you: Countries through time