---
title: "Is Malaysia a Good Place to Live? — Geo-Parity"
description: "Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur): 172.1 Mbps internet, safety 96/100, healthcare 80/100 — essentials ≈ $617/month, so $3k lives \"like royalty\". Full quality-vs-cost breakdown."
canonical: "https://geo-parity.com/livability/malaysia/"
json: "https://geo-parity.com/api/livability.json"
generator: geo-parity markdown twin
---
Livability · rank 37/167

# Is 🇲🇾 Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) a good place to live?

Quality score **79/100** against essentials of **$617/month**. KL punches above its price: good private healthcare, wide English, decent fibre.

## The five metrics

Internet 69 172.1 Mbps median broadband, 98% online

Safety 96 0.7 homicides/100k (2023)

Healthcare 80 UHC service coverage 80/100 (2023)

Air quality 71 PM2.5 18.2 µg/m³ (2023)

English 80 day-to-day usability

## Beside the score, not inside it

Neither of these is part of the composite above, deliberately. Folding governance into a quality-of-life number would bury a political judgement where you could not see it or argue with it, and connection *price* is a different question from connection *speed* — somewhere fast and expensive and somewhere slow and cheap are different trade-offs, not one average.

- **Rule of law**: middling
- World Bank WGI estimate 0.35 · corruption control 0.5 · stability 0.38 (2024). Scale −2.5 to +2.5, higher is better.
- **What connectivity costs**: $21.2 /mo broadband
- Mobile 10GB $4.49/month. ITU price basket. The speed above is scored; this price is not.

## What your budget buys

| Monthly budget | vs essentials ($617) | Verdict |
| --- | --- | --- |
| $2,000 | 3.2× | like royalty |
| $3,000 | 4.9× | like royalty |
| $5,000 | 8.1× | like royalty |

Essentials from the [Pint & Property basket](https://geo-parity.com/expenses/?tab=prices). Rank countries by your own priorities in the [interactive matrix](https://geo-parity.com/livability/).

🛂 **DE Rantau Nomad Pass** — income floor ≈ $2,000/month. [Visa finder →](https://geo-parity.com/nomad-visas/)

🪤 Tax residency triggers at **182 days**. [Tax residency details →](https://geo-parity.com/tax-residency/malaysia/)

## Similar value-for-money

- [🇦🇿 Azerbaijan](https://geo-parity.com/livability/azerbaijan/) — quality 70.4, essentials $552/mo
- [🇹🇯 Tajikistan](https://geo-parity.com/livability/tajikistan/) — quality 55, essentials $439/mo
- [🇹🇭 Thailand](https://geo-parity.com/livability/thailand/) — quality 67.6, essentials $545/mo
- [🇺🇿 Uzbekistan](https://geo-parity.com/livability/uzbekistan/) — quality 64, essentials $478/mo

See also: [everyday prices](https://geo-parity.com/cost-of-living/united-states-vs-malaysia/) · [retiring in Malaysia](https://geo-parity.com/fire/malaysia/)

## Frequently asked questions

- **Is Malaysia a good place to live for remote workers?**: Malaysia scores 79/100 on our equal-weighted livability composite (internet 172.1 Mbps, safety 96, healthcare 80, air quality 71, english 80) — rank 37 of 167. KL punches above its price: good private healthcare, wide English, decent fibre.
- **How fast is the internet in Malaysia?**: Median fixed broadband is around 172.1 Mbps. KL punches above its price: good private healthcare, wide English, decent fibre.
- **What does $3,000/month get you in Malaysia?**: Single-person essentials run about $617/month at local prices, so $3,000 lives "like royalty" (4.9× essentials).

Safety, healthcare and air quality are objective figures from the World Bank (homicide rate, life expectancy) and WHO (PM2.5); internet speed and English are curated. City variation is real — verify locally. Agents: GET /api/livability.json?budget=3000.

---

Source: Geo-Parity — https://geo-parity.com/livability/malaysia/ · JSON: https://geo-parity.com/api/livability.json