Asia
Thirty countries. Four subregions. The most populous continent on Earth.
From the neon streets of Tokyo to the highland valleys of Kyrgyzstan, from the temples of Angkor Wat to the boardrooms of Seoul, Asia is the world's most populous, most linguistically diverse, and most historically layered continent. Nations Atlas covers thirty countries here in detail — across East, Southeast, South, and Central Asia. (For West Asia — the seventeen countries of the Middle East — see our separate hub.)
What defines Asia
Asia is not one place. It is dozens of civilisations layered across landscapes that stretch from Arctic tundra to equatorial rainforest — and every generalisation about the continent falls apart on contact.
Asia is the largest continent on Earth, both by land area (about 44.6 million square kilometres, roughly 30 percent of the world's land) and by population (approximately 4.7 billion people, about 60 percent of humanity). It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Pacific to the east, the Indian Ocean to the south, and — through the Ural mountains and the Caucasus — the traditional boundary with Europe to the west.
What binds Asia is depth of history. Many of its cultures trace continuous written, religious, and philosophical traditions across two, three, or four millennia. Chinese civilisation, Indian civilisation, Persian civilisation, and the interconnected cultures of Southeast Asia are among the oldest continuously inhabited civilisational areas in the world. Every major world religion except Christianity originated in Asia — Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism on the Indian subcontinent; Confucianism, Daoism, and Shinto in East Asia; Islam, Judaism, and the Baha'i faith in West Asia.
That depth also means Asia refuses easy generalisation. East Asia's Confucian-influenced business norms have almost nothing in common with the polyglot street culture of Mumbai. The tea houses of Central Asia belong to a Turkic and Persian world quite distinct from the wet markets of Southeast Asia. Nations Atlas covers each Asian country as its own place — with sources, cultural review from editors from the region, and the humility that the scale of the continent demands.
How many countries are in Asia?
Definitions vary by source and by whether West Asia (the Middle East) is counted separately. Taiwan is covered by Nations Atlas as its own entity in line with our cultural sensitivity policy.
Why the number varies
Depending on the source, you will see counts ranging from 44 to 51 for Asia. The variation comes from three questions each classification answers differently.
Is West Asia included? The UN classification splits Asia into five subregions — Eastern, South-Eastern, Southern, Central, and Western — with West Asia containing 17 countries usually referred to together as the Middle East. Many travel guides, students, and business readers search for "Middle East" separately, which is why Nations Atlas gives it its own hub. If you exclude West Asia, the Asia count drops from 48 to 30.
Is Taiwan counted? Taiwan is not a UN member state but functions as an independent country with its own government, currency, passport, and international relations. Most travel references count it; some political references do not. Nations Atlas covers Taiwan as its own entity.
Are transcontinental countries counted here or elsewhere? Russia lies mostly in Asia by land area but is culturally and politically European and is covered under our Europe hub. Türkiye, Cyprus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia straddle the Asia-Europe divide in different classifications; Nations Atlas covers them under the Middle East or Europe hubs depending on cultural association.
The four subregions of Asia
Understanding Asia starts with understanding that it contains at least four culturally distinct regions, each with their own languages, religions, cuisines, and historical trajectories.
East Asia
6 countriesEast Asia comprises China, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Mongolia, and Taiwan. The region is home to about 1.7 billion people and produces roughly a quarter of global economic output. Sino-Tibetan and Japonic language families dominate, alongside Korean and Mongolic.
Cultural threads run deep. Confucian influence on family, education, and business remains visible in China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and among the region's diasporas. Rice cultivation shapes cuisine across the south; wheat-based cooking dominates northern China and Mongolia. Buddhism arrived from India via the Silk Road and coexists with Confucian ethics, Daoism in China, Shinto in Japan, and shamanic traditions in Korea and Mongolia. Tea culture — from Japanese chanoyu to Chinese gongfu cha — is a specific inheritance shared across the region with local variations.
East Asian economies are among the world's most developed. Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan are high-income OECD-tier economies with world-leading electronics, automotive, and semiconductor industries. China is the world's second-largest economy and a manufacturing centre for much of the world. Mongolia sits apart geographically and economically, with a small population spread across a vast steppe.
Southeast Asia
11 countriesSoutheast Asia contains eleven countries around the South China Sea and the Malay archipelago: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam. Ten of the eleven are members of ASEAN — the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, one of the world's most active regional blocs. The region is home to about 685 million people.
The cultural map here is exceptionally layered. Buddhist-majority mainland (Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar) sits alongside Muslim-majority insular (Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, southern Philippines), Catholic-majority Philippines and Timor-Leste, and Confucian-influenced Vietnam. Singapore is a plural society with Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Eurasian communities. Cuisine builds on rice as staple, coconut as base, chilli as pulse, and lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime, fish sauce, and fermented shrimp as the specific vocabulary that varies country by country.
Economically, Southeast Asia is diverse and dynamic. Singapore is a high-income financial centre. Malaysia and Thailand are upper-middle-income manufacturing economies. Vietnam is one of the world's fastest-growing economies. Indonesia is the largest by population and GDP. Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar remain lower-income with rapidly developing tourism sectors.
South Asia
8 countriesSouth Asia is the Indian subcontinent plus Afghanistan and the Maldives: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and the two above. Home to roughly 2 billion people — a quarter of humanity — it is by many measures the most densely populated large region on Earth. Seven of the eight countries are members of SAARC, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.
South Asia is the birthplace of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, and remains home to the world's largest Muslim and Hindu populations (in Pakistan/Bangladesh/India and India respectively). India alone has 22 official languages and hundreds of unofficial ones, spanning the Indo-European family (Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi) and the Dravidian family (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam). Bhutan and Nepal add Sino-Tibetan languages to the mix. Afghan cultures overlap the Persian and Turkic worlds.
Cuisine in South Asia layers spices in stages, builds around rice or wheat depending on region, and produces some of the world's most distinctive vegetarian traditions. Business culture is famously relationship-driven, long-horizon, and hierarchical, with regional differences (Mumbai fast-paced, Bengaluru tech-driven, Delhi bureaucratic, Karachi commercial) that matter more than surface stereotypes suggest.
Central Asia
5 countriesCentral Asia consists of five post-Soviet republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Four are Turkic-speaking; Tajikistan is Persian-speaking. The region's total population is about 80 million spread across a huge landmass — Kazakhstan alone is the world's ninth-largest country by area.
Central Asia's cultural inheritance sits at the crossroads of the Turkic, Persian, and Islamic worlds, with a substantial Russian and Soviet-era overlay from more than a century of Tsarist and Soviet rule. Sunni Islam is the majority religion; Persian and Turkic literary traditions run deep. Silk Road cities — Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva in Uzbekistan; Merv in Turkmenistan — hold some of the most stunning Islamic architecture in the world. Nomadic heritage remains visible in cuisine (meat-forward, dairy-rich), music, and — in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan — a living tradition of eagle hunting and horseback culture.
Since independence in 1991, the five republics have taken divergent political and economic paths. Kazakhstan is the wealthiest, an upper-middle-income energy economy. Uzbekistan has opened dramatically since 2016 and is one of the region's most-visited destinations. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are mountainous and lower-income, with growing adventure tourism. Turkmenistan remains one of the world's most closed societies.
All 30 countries in Asia
Every sovereign country covered under the Asia hub, with capital, population, currency, and official languages. Type to filter by any field, or click a subregion to narrow the list.
| Country | Subregion | Capital | Population | Currency | Official language(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afghanistan | South Asia | Kabul | ~42.6 M | AFN Afghani | Pashto, Dari | |
| Bangladesh | South Asia | Dhaka | ~173 M | BDT Taka | Bangla | |
| Bhutan | South Asia | Thimphu | ~790 K | BTN Ngultrum | Dzongkha | |
| Brunei | Southeast Asia | Bandar Seri Begawan | ~460 K | BND Dollar | Malay | |
| Cambodia | Southeast Asia | Phnom Penh | ~17.6 M | KHR Riel | Khmer | |
| China | East Asia | Beijing | ~1.41 B | CNY Yuan | Mandarin (Standard Chinese) | |
| India | South Asia | New Delhi | ~1.44 B | INR Rupee | Hindi, English + 22 official | |
| Indonesia | Southeast Asia | Jakarta (moving to Nusantara) | ~279 M | IDR Rupiah | Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) | |
| Japan | East Asia | Tokyo | ~124 M | JPY Yen | Japanese | |
| Kazakhstan | Central Asia | Astana | ~20 M | KZT Tenge | Kazakh, Russian | |
| Kyrgyzstan | Central Asia | Bishkek | ~7 M | KGS Som | Kyrgyz, Russian | |
| Laos | Southeast Asia | Vientiane | ~7.7 M | LAK Kip | Lao | |
| Malaysia | Southeast Asia | Kuala Lumpur | ~34.6 M | MYR Ringgit | Malay (Bahasa Melayu) | |
| Maldives | South Asia | Malé | ~530 K | MVR Rufiyaa | Dhivehi | |
| Mongolia | East Asia | Ulaanbaatar | ~3.5 M | MNT Tögrög | Mongolian | |
| Myanmar (Burma) | Southeast Asia | Naypyidaw | ~54 M | MMK Kyat | Burmese | |
| Nepal | South Asia | Kathmandu | ~30 M | NPR Rupee | Nepali | |
| North Korea (DPRK) | East Asia | Pyongyang | ~26.5 M | KPW Won | Korean | |
| Pakistan | South Asia | Islamabad | ~247 M | PKR Rupee | Urdu, English | |
| Philippines | Southeast Asia | Manila | ~115 M | PHP Peso | Filipino, English | |
| Singapore | Southeast Asia | Singapore | ~6 M | SGD Dollar | English, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil | |
| South Korea (ROK) | East Asia | Seoul | ~51.7 M | KRW Won | Korean | |
| Sri Lanka | South Asia | Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte | ~21.9 M | LKR Rupee | Sinhala, Tamil | |
| Taiwan | East Asia | Taipei | ~23.4 M | TWD Dollar | Mandarin, Taiwanese Hokkien | |
| Tajikistan | Central Asia | Dushanbe | ~10.4 M | TJS Somoni | Tajik | |
| Thailand | Southeast Asia | Bangkok | ~71 M | THB Baht | Thai | |
| Timor-Leste | Southeast Asia | Dili | ~1.4 M | USD Dollar | Tetum, Portuguese | |
| Turkmenistan | Central Asia | Ashgabat | ~6.6 M | TMT Manat | Turkmen | |
| Uzbekistan | Central Asia | Tashkent | ~35.6 M | UZS Som | Uzbek | |
| Vietnam | Southeast Asia | Hanoi | ~100 M | VND Dong | Vietnamese |
Population figures are rounded mid-2024 United Nations estimates verified for 2026. Currency and language columns show the primary official currency and language(s); many countries have additional co-official or widely-spoken languages, all covered on the individual country pages. Click any country name to open its full profile — twenty-five topic guides covering culture, food, etiquette, business, and travel prep.
Asia by the numbers
Three ranked lists that answer the questions readers ask most often about the continent — who is largest, who is most populous, and where wealth concentrates.
Most populous countries in Asia
- India1.44 B
- China1.41 B
- Indonesia279 M
- Pakistan247 M
- Bangladesh173 M
- Japan124 M
- Philippines115 M
- Vietnam100 M
- Thailand71 M
- Myanmar54 M
Largest countries by area
- China9.60 M km²
- India3.29 M km²
- Kazakhstan2.72 M km²
- Indonesia1.90 M km²
- Mongolia1.56 M km²
- Pakistan0.88 M km²
- Türkiye (West Asia)0.78 M km²
- Afghanistan0.65 M km²
- Myanmar0.68 M km²
- Thailand0.51 M km²
Largest economies in Asia
- China#2 globally
- JapanTop 5
- IndiaTop 5
- South KoreaTop 15
- IndonesiaTop 20
- TaiwanTop 25
- ThailandTop 30
- SingaporeTop 35
- PhilippinesTop 40
- VietnamTop 40
Population figures are UN 2024 estimates rounded for readability. Area figures follow standard CIA World Factbook conventions. GDP orderings are stated by tier rather than exact rank because rankings shift year-to-year and depend on whether you use nominal GDP, PPP, or per-capita measures. Country pages carry more precise, sourced figures with links to the underlying data.
Cultural threads across Asia
Threads that appear across multiple Asian countries — with the sharp differences that outsiders often miss.
Cuisine: rice, wheat, and the spice road
Rice is the shared staple across most of Asia, but everything around it differs. East Asia leans on soy, fermentation, and precise knife work — sushi, kimchi, dim sum, and Mongolian hotpot each answer a different local question. Southeast Asia balances five tastes — sweet, sour, salty, spicy, umami — often in a single dish, with coconut milk, fish sauce, and specific herb vocabularies varying country by country.
South Asia layers spices in stages, building depth from cumin and coriander base up through cardamom, cinnamon, and specific regional masalas. Naan and roti belong to the wheat-based north; rice to the south. Central Asia is meat-forward, shaped by nomadic traditions and Silk Road exchange — plov, laghman, samsa. Explore country-by-country in our food culture hub.
Religion: every major tradition lives here
Every major world religion except Christianity originated in Asia, and all of them still have living communities on the continent. Hinduism is the majority religion in India and Nepal; Buddhism dominates in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Bhutan, Mongolia, and much of East Asia. Islam is the majority religion in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia (the world's largest Muslim population by country), Malaysia, Brunei, the Maldives, and all five Central Asian republics.
Christianity is the majority religion in the Philippines and Timor-Leste. Judaism, Sikhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, and Baha'i faith have historic Asian communities. Confucianism, Daoism, and Shinto function as philosophical and ritual traditions alongside religion in East Asia. Every country page covers religious practice and etiquette.
Language: nine major families
Asia is home to more than 2,300 living languages across nine major families. Sino-Tibetan includes Mandarin (the world's most-spoken native language), Cantonese, Tibetan, Burmese. Indo-European covers Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Persian, Punjabi, and dozens more across South Asia and Iran. Austronesian spans Indonesian, Malay, Filipino, and hundreds of Pacific-related tongues. Austroasiatic gives us Vietnamese and Khmer.
Tai-Kadai covers Thai and Lao. Japonic and Koreanic are language isolates (or small families). Turkic unites Uzbek, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkmen, and — outside our Asia hub — Azerbaijani and Turkish. Dravidian includes Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam in southern India. Our language families guide unpacks each in detail.
Family, hierarchy, and hospitality
Extended family remains a strong organising unit across most of Asia, though the specific shape varies enormously. Elder respect is expressed in language itself in Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and many South and Southeast Asian tongues — including different pronouns, verb conjugations, and honorifics depending on relative age and status.
Hospitality traditions run especially deep across Central Asia (the guest as sacred, food and shelter given without question), South Asia (atithi devo bhava — the guest is god), the Islamic world (a religious duty), and much of Southeast Asia. Understanding hospitality is often the fastest route into a culture. Our etiquette hub covers country-by-country practice.
Business culture: sharp regional differences
Business styles vary more sharply across Asia than most Western business books admit. Japan and South Korea prize consensus (nemawashi), formality, and long deliberation before commitment. China increasingly balances relationship (guanxi) with speed of execution. India's business culture is famously relationship-driven, long-horizon, and jugaad-inventive within hierarchical structures.
Southeast Asia mixes ASEAN pragmatism with local family-business norms; Singapore is a cosmopolitan exception. Central Asia is still building its post-Soviet business culture, with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan moving fastest. Our business culture hub covers meeting protocols, hierarchy, gift-giving, and negotiation styles country by country.
Dress, greetings, and public rhythm
Dress codes vary from strict conservative expectations (parts of Central Asia's Islamic tradition, formal Japanese business, temple entry across South and Southeast Asia) through moderate norms (most East Asian cities, urban Southeast Asia) to relatively open (Bangkok, Manila, Seoul, Tokyo casual). Sacred sites almost universally require covered shoulders, covered legs, and — for many — head coverings.
Greetings map to region: bow in Japan and Korea; wai in Thailand; namaste across South Asia; handshake (often with left hand on right forearm) across the Central Asian Muslim world; kiss on cheek across parts of the Philippines. Business hours cluster differently — Friday half-day in Muslim-majority regions, six-day working week in parts of South Asia, extended lunch breaks in tropical Southeast Asia. Our greetings and dress code hubs cover specifics.
Best time to visit Asia by subregion
Asia's monsoon systems, elevation, and enormous latitudinal range mean timing matters more than for any other continent. Here is the practical calendar.
| Subregion | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Asia (Japan, Korea) | ◐ | ◐ | ● | ● | ● | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ◐ | ● | ● | ◐ |
| Southeast Asia mainland | ● | ● | ◐ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ◐ | ● | ● |
| Southeast Asia islands | ◐ | ◐ | ◐ | ◐ | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ◐ | ✗ | ✗ |
| South Asia (India, Pakistan) | ● | ● | ◐ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ◐ | ● | ● | ● |
| Himalayas (Nepal, Bhutan) | ✗ | ✗ | ● | ● | ◐ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ◐ | ● | ● | ✗ |
| Central Asia | ✗ | ✗ | ◐ | ● | ● | ● | ◐ | ◐ | ● | ● | ◐ | ✗ |
The general rule across most of Asia: the dry, cooler season is best, which for most of the continent means roughly November through March. Southeast Asia's islands invert this — the eastern islands are best May through September when the western monsoon dries out. The Himalayas open only for narrow shoulder seasons in spring and autumn between the winter freeze and the summer monsoon. Central Asia's cold winter makes it a spring-through-autumn destination.
Festival timing can override weather. Cherry blossom season in Japan (late March to early April) and Korea's spring is worth heat and crowds. Diwali (October/November), Chinese New Year (January/February), Songkran in Thailand (April), and Eid across Muslim-majority countries all bring specific atmosphere but also higher prices and full transport. Ramadan (moving lunar calendar) reshapes daily life across Muslim-majority Asia — check current dates before booking. Every country page covers the local festival calendar.
Getting around Asia
Asia's distances are large, but its transport networks — flights, high-speed rail, budget carriers, and inter-country visa areas — make multi-country trips genuinely practical.
Air. Asia has the world's densest network of budget airlines. AirAsia, Scoot, Cebu Pacific, VietJet, IndiGo, and Jetstar Asia connect major cities across Southeast and East Asia for often less than USD 100 one-way. Long-haul hub airports — Singapore Changi, Hong Kong, Incheon, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, Dubai (adjacent Middle East), and increasingly Delhi and Istanbul — handle most intercontinental connections. Book carry-on-only fares where possible; checked bags on budget carriers are expensive.
Rail. Japan's Shinkansen network is the world benchmark; the JR Pass remains excellent value for multi-city trips. China's high-speed rail network is now the world's largest, connecting almost all major cities at speeds up to 350 km/h. South Korea's KTX, Taiwan's THSR, and India's growing Vande Bharat network offer similar speed. Indian long-distance rail — the slower, sleeper-heavy classic network — remains one of the world's great travel experiences. Southeast Asian rail is developing rapidly (Vientiane–Kunming line, Jakarta–Bandung high-speed).
Bus and road. Long-distance buses are excellent across mainland Southeast Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia), affordable across India and Pakistan, and improving fast across Central Asia (though Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan road quality varies). Ride-hail (Grab in Southeast Asia, Ola and Uber in India, DiDi in China) has transformed urban transport in most large cities.
Cross-border travel. There is no single Schengen-style visa area for Asia. ASEAN citizens travel visa-free between most member states, but non-ASEAN passport holders need separate visas or visas-on-arrival for each country. SAARC citizens (South Asian) have limited visa-free reciprocity. Central Asia has moved toward visa-free arrangements for many Western passports — Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan now offer 30-day visa-free entry to citizens of 60+ countries. Our visa guides cover each system.
How safe is Asia?
Safety varies sharply by country and by region within a country. The overall picture, with the honest exceptions.
The safest countries. Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea consistently rank among the world's ten safest countries in the Global Peace Index and Numbeo Safety Index. Petty crime rates are low; violent crime rates are among the lowest in the developed world. Public transport, including late-night, is generally safe for all travellers. Bhutan is remarkably safe, with low crime and a small, controlled tourism sector.
Broadly safe with sensible precautions. Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and most of Central Asia are safe for prepared travellers in the main tourism circuits. Common precautions apply — watch for pickpocketing in crowded areas, use registered taxis or ride-hail after dark, avoid isolated areas at night, and check current advisories for specific regions (southern Thailand, parts of Mindanao in the Philippines, some border areas in Nepal and Pakistan).
Country-specific attention needed. India is broadly safe for travellers with sensible precautions but requires more preparation, especially for solo female travellers; specific regions and cities warrant closer attention to current advisories. Pakistan's tourism is opening rapidly, especially in the north (Gilgit-Baltistan, Hunza), but requires research on specific regions. Afghanistan and North Korea require careful review of current government advisories and — in North Korea's case — organised group travel only. Myanmar's political situation has changed significantly since 2021 and current advisories should be checked.
Safety situations change quickly. Before any trip, consult your government's current travel advisory — the US State Department, UK Foreign Office, Global Affairs Canada, or the Australian DFAT — for the specific countries and regions you plan to visit. Our individual country pages carry current safety sections with the same advisory links, plus context on which parts of the country the advisory actually covers.
Solo female travel and LGBTQ+ safety. These vary sharply by country. Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea are generally straightforward for solo female travellers. Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia are broadly welcoming with sensible precautions. India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka reward preparation and dressing conservatively in less-touristed areas. LGBTQ+ acceptance varies from officially welcoming (Taiwan, Thailand) through informal tolerance (Vietnam, most of urban East and Southeast Asia) to legal restriction (parts of Central Asia, Malaysia, Brunei). Our solo female travel guide covers country-by-country practicalities.
Money and connectivity across Asia
Currency access, payment methods, ATMs, and mobile connectivity have all changed enormously in the past five years. Current state of play.
Cards vs. cash. Contactless card and mobile payment (Apple Pay, Google Pay) work seamlessly in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and most Malaysian and Thai cities. Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, and India increasingly accept cards but cash remains important outside major cities and for street food, taxis, and small shops. Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar are still substantially cash economies, though Cambodian ATMs dispense USD alongside riel. Central Asia is transitioning quickly — cards now widely accepted in Almaty, Tashkent, Bishkek, but cash is still safer outside cities.
ATMs. Foreign-card-friendly ATMs are widespread in every Asian capital and major city. Fees range from free (Japan Post Bank, 7-Eleven ATMs in Japan) through USD 3–5 (most Southeast Asian networks) to USD 8–10 (Thailand's high fixed foreign-card fee is notorious — expect around 220 baht per withdrawal). Withdrawing larger amounts less often is usually the best strategy.
Multi-currency accounts. Wise, Revolut, and (increasingly) local challenger banks now offer better exchange rates than traditional bank cards or currency exchange booths for most Asian currencies. Withdrawing from ATMs using a Wise card typically saves 2–4% versus a legacy bank card. Our money abroad guide covers the details.
Connectivity. eSIMs from providers like Airalo, Holafly, Nomad, and Ubigi work across most of Asia and are usually cheaper than international roaming or airport SIM kiosks. Local physical SIM cards remain excellent value in Thailand (7-Eleven), Vietnam (Viettel), Indonesia (Telkomsel), India (Airtel or Jio, requires local address for activation), and Malaysia (Digi, Maxis). Free public WiFi is exceptional in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore; less reliable elsewhere. Our eSIM guide covers current pricing and coverage per country.
Where to start
Eight Asian countries currently getting the most attention from Nations Atlas readers. Each opens onto twenty-five topic pages covering culture, food, etiquette, business, and travel prep.
Japan
Bowing, business cards, chopstick rules, and why tipping is refused. The most-read country guide on the site.
China
Regional cuisines, business relationship-building (guanxi), dialects, and travel practicalities.
India
Twenty-two official languages, dozens of regional cuisines, and how family and hierarchy shape everything.
Thailand
The wai greeting, temple dress, food ordering etiquette, and the sanctity of head and feet.
South Korea
Confucian workplace norms, age-based honorifics, K-food beyond Korean BBQ, and Seoul practicalities.
Vietnam
North-south cultural differences, coffee culture rivalling any in the world, and pho beyond the cliché.
Indonesia
The world's largest Muslim-majority nation, seventeen thousand islands, and hundreds of regional languages.
Pakistan
Four provinces, four cuisines, hospitality traditions, and the mountains of the north — Hunza and beyond.
Popular comparisons within Asia
When you are weighing two countries within the region, direct comparisons make the trade-offs clear.
Japan vs South Korea
Culture, food, cost, and etiquette compared.
India vs Pakistan
Shared roots, distinct cultures.
Thailand vs Vietnam
Two Southeast Asian favourites compared.
China vs Japan
Business culture, food, and travel.
Singapore vs Hong Kong
Two Asian financial centres compared.
Nepal vs Bhutan
Two Himalayan kingdoms compared.
Malaysia vs Indonesia
Neighbours with distinct national cultures.
Philippines vs Thailand
Islands and mainland compared.
Contested territories and how we cover them
Several Asian regions have contested political status. Being explicit about how we handle them is part of our editorial standard.
Taiwan. Nations Atlas covers Taiwan as its own entity with its own culture, food, language, and travel context. We describe its political status factually, cite sources from both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan), and note where sources conflict. This reflects both practical reality for travellers and our editorial policy of covering places on the terms most readers actually search.
Kashmir. We describe the Line of Control and note that portions of the region are administered by India, Pakistan, and China respectively. We cite sources from all three governments and independent monitoring bodies. We do not endorse any single national position on final status. Coverage of Kashmir appears on both the India and Pakistan country pages, linked as partner pages so both perspectives are one click apart.
The South China Sea. Several Asian countries — China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia — have overlapping claims in the South China Sea. Where relevant to travel or business coverage, we describe the disputed status factually and cite the 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling alongside the positions of each claimant.
Our full approach — including how we handle religious sacred sites, contested borders, ethnic minority coverage, and historical atrocities — is set out in the cultural sensitivity policy. If we get something wrong, please tell us: the correction policy explains how.
Related Nations Atlas coverage
Rankings, travel prep guides, and longer culture reads that extend this hub.
Sister sites worth bookmarking
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Asia FAQ
Ten questions readers ask most often about Asia as a whole.
There are 48 recognised sovereign countries in Asia by United Nations classification, which includes West Asia (also known as the Middle East). Nations Atlas covers 30 of them under the Asia hub — the countries of East, Southeast, South, and Central Asia. The 17 countries of West Asia are covered under our separate Middle East hub, because that is how most readers actually search for the region. Taiwan is covered as its own entity with distinct culture, food, language, and travel context, in line with our cultural sensitivity policy.
Russia is the largest country by total area with roughly 75 percent of its landmass in Asia, but it is typically counted under Europe and is covered under our Europe hub. Excluding Russia, the largest country wholly in Asia is China at approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, followed by India (3.29 million), Kazakhstan (2.72 million), Saudi Arabia (in West Asia / Middle East hub), and Indonesia (1.9 million).
India became the most populous country in the world in April 2023, surpassing China. As of mid-2024 UN estimates verified for 2026, India has approximately 1.44 billion people and China has approximately 1.41 billion. Asia is home to seven of the world's ten most populous countries: India, China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Japan, and the Philippines.
The four subregions covered under the Nations Atlas Asia hub are East Asia (China, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Mongolia, Taiwan), Southeast Asia (11 countries around the South China Sea and Malay archipelago), South Asia (8 countries on the Indian subcontinent plus Afghanistan and the Maldives), and Central Asia (5 post-Soviet Turkic and Persian-speaking republics). West Asia — the Middle East — is a fifth subregion in UN classification but is covered under our separate Middle East hub.
For a first visit to Asia, Japan and Thailand are the most reader-recommended by our editors. Both offer strong tourism infrastructure, high safety, English-language wayfinding in tourist areas, and cuisines most travellers adapt to quickly. Singapore is the easiest entry point for East and Southeast Asia and functions as a stepping-stone city. For a more culturally intense first experience, India, Vietnam, and Indonesia reward preparation but demand more from a first-time visitor.
Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea consistently rank among the world's safest countries in indexes such as the Global Peace Index and the Numbeo Safety Index. Most of Southeast Asia is safe for prepared travellers with common-sense precautions in specific neighbourhoods of major cities. Solo female safety, LGBTQ+ safety, and current government advisories vary sharply by country and are covered on each country page and in our solo female travel guide.
The best time depends on the subregion. Southeast Asia is best November through March in the dry season; avoid April to May heat and the June to October monsoon. East Asia peaks in cherry-blossom spring (late March to April) and autumn foliage (October to November). South Asia is best October through March, avoiding the summer monsoon. Central Asia opens May through September when mountain passes are clear. The season table earlier on this page shows the full year at a glance.
Visa-free access varies by passport. Common visa-free or visa-on-arrival destinations for US, UK, EU, and Canadian passport holders include Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and the Maldives. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan now offer 30-day visa-free entry to citizens of 60+ countries. Requirements change frequently — always confirm current requirements with the destination country's embassy or an official government portal before travel.
Nations Atlas covers Taiwan as its own entity with its own culture, food, language, and travel context, because that is what most readers looking for information about Taiwan actually need. We describe its political status factually, cite both PRC and ROC sources where relevant, and note where sources conflict. Our full approach to contested territories is set out in our cultural sensitivity policy.
Asia is home to more than 2,300 living languages across nine major language families: Sino-Tibetan (including Mandarin, Cantonese, Tibetan, Burmese), Indo-European (Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Persian, Punjabi), Austronesian (Indonesian, Malay, Tagalog), Austroasiatic (Vietnamese, Khmer), Tai-Kadai (Thai, Lao), Japonic (Japanese), Koreanic (Korean), Turkic (Uzbek, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkmen), and Dravidian (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam). Mandarin Chinese has the most native speakers of any language in the world. Our language families guide covers each family in detail.