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Social & Moral Development Index₁
Pos.		Higher is better Points₁
1	Hong Kong	77.5
2	Taiwan	74.1
3	Japan	73.5
4	Korea, S.	67.9
5	Singapore	67.3
6	Israel	67.3
7	Maldives	63.0
8	Cyprus	62.6
9	Brunei	62.3
10	Bhutan	60.6
	Asia Avg	52.9
	World Avg	53.8
q=51.

Asia as a whole covers a huge range of countries, from full democracies to hardened dictatorships, and from highly developed technological countries, to nations of ill-educated and semi-literate clanspeople. Of this mix, which countries are a shining example to the others?

There are 59 locations that fall within this category. By adding up all the known populations that fall within these locations, and summing their physical land areas, we can calculate population densities. Some islands and territories can end up being counted twice depending on how they are classified and divided up politically, but, mostly such errors involve only small populations. So, some data on this collection of countries in total:

Compare to other regions of the world

Total Population: 4.4b
Total Land Area: 47 307 312km²
Independent States: 48
Other Territories: 11

1. Social and Moral Development Index and Basic Demographics

The Social and Moral Development Index concentrates on moral issues and human rights, violence, public health, equality, tolerance, freedom and effectiveness in climate change mitigation and environmentalism, and on some technological issues. A country scores higher for achieving well in those areas, and for sustaining that achievement in the long term. Those countries towards the top of this index can truly said to be setting good examples and leading humankind onwards into a bright, humane, and free future. See: What is the Best Country in the World? An Index of Morality, Conscience and Good Life.

Pos.		Social & Moral Higher is better Points₁	Life Expectancy (2015) Higher is better Years₂	Gross National Income (2011) Higher is better PPP $₂	UN HDI (2016) Lower is better Rank₃	Population (2012)₄	Land Area (2011) km²₅	People Per km² Lower is better
1	Hong Kong	77.5	84.16	$54 265	12	7.2m	1 042	6 906
2	Taiwan	74.1
3	Japan	73.5	83.68	$37 268	17	126.4m	364 500	347
4	Korea, S.	67.9	82.13	$34 541	18	48.6m	97 100	500
5	Singapore	67.3	83.21	$78 162	5	5.3m	700	7 509
6	Israel	67.3	82.56	$31 215	19	7.7m	21 640	356
7	Maldives	63.0	76.96	$10 383	105	0.3m	300	1 081
8	Cyprus	62.6	80.33	$29 459	33	1.1m	9 240	122
9	Brunei	62.3	79.02	$72 843	30	0.4m	5 270	78
10	Bhutan	60.6	69.85	$7 081	132	0.8m	38 394	20
11	Mongolia	58.7	69.81	$10 449	92	2.8m	1 553 560	2
12	Malaysia	57.2	74.90	$24 620	59	29.3m	328 550	89
13	Qatar	55.2	78.32	$129 916	33	1.9m	11 610	167
14	Georgia	54.8	75.02	$8 856	70	4.3m	69 490	62
15	Turkey	54.8	75.53	$18 705	71	74.5m	769 630	97
16	Philippines	54.5	68.34	$8 395	116	96.5m	298 170	324
17	UAE	54.1	77.12	$66 203	42	8.1m	83 600	97
18	Tajikistan	53.9	69.58	$2 601	129	7.1m	139 960	51
19	Kuwait	53.8	74.55	$76 075	51	2.9m	17 820	162
20	Kyrgyzstan	53.4	70.79	$3 097	120	5.4m	191 800	28
21	Armenia	53.4	74.89	$8 189	84	3.1m	28 480	109
22	Vietnam	53.3	75.94	$5 335	115	89.7m	310 070	289
23	Uzbekistan	53.2	69.40	$5 748	105	28.1m	425 400	66
24	Bahrain	53.0	76.72	$37 236	47	1.4m	760	1 789
25	Sri Lanka	52.7	75.05	$10 789	73	21.2m	62 710	338
26	Azerbaijan	52.6	70.90	$16 413	78	9.4m	82 658	114
27	Oman	52.0	76.97	$34 402	52	2.9m	309 500	9
28	Thailand	51.4	74.62	$14 519	87	69.9m	510 890	137
29	Nepal	50.5	69.99	$2 337	144	31.0m	143 350	216
30	Kazakhstan	50.4	69.59	$22 093	56	16.4m	2 699 700	6
31	Jordan	50.1	74.18	$10 111	86	6.5m	88 780	73
32	Laos	50.0	66.60	$5 049	138	6.4m	230 800	28
33	Lebanon	50.0	79.54	$13 312	76	4.3m	10 230	420
34	Turkmenistan	49.7	65.73	$14 026	111	5.2m	469 930	11
35	Korea, N.	49.3	70.52			24.6m	120 410	204
36	Indonesia	49.3	69.05	$10 053	113	244.8m	1 811 570	135
37	Russia	48.7	70.26	$23 286	49	142.7m	16 376 870	9
38	China	48.0	75.96	$13 345	90	1.4b	9 327 490	145
39	Iran	47.8	75.58	$16 395	69	75.6m	1 628 550	46
40	India	47.7	68.32	$5 663	131	1.3b	2 973 190	423
41	Timor-Leste (E. Timor)	46.8	68.51	$5 371	133	1.2m	14 870	80
42	Saudi Arabia	46.5	74.44	$51 320	38	28.7m	2 149 690	13
43	Bangladesh	46.1	71.99	$3 341	139	152.4m	130 170	1 171
44	Cambodia	44.8	68.81	$3 095	143	14.5m	176 520	82
45	Myanmar (Burma)	44.1	66.12	$4 943	145	48.7m	653 290	75
46	Syria	41.0	69.65	$2 441	149	21.1m	183 630	115
47	Afghanistan	39.9	60.70	$1 871	169	33.4m	652 230	51
48	Palestine	38.9	73.07	$5 256	114	4.3m
49	Pakistan	38.7	66.37	$5 031	147	180.0m	770 880	233
50	Iraq	36.1	69.63	$11 608	121	33.7m	434 320	78
51	Yemen	33.3	64.05	$2 300	168	25.6m	527 970	48
	Asia Avg	52.9	73.18	$21 817	88.2	87.4m	946 146	92
	World Avg	53.8	71.27	$17 240	94.3	36.0m	620 450	58
q=51.

Not showing due to lack of data: Abkhazia. This page only shows places where the database has enough data to be able to come to reasonable conclusions about each place. The main focus is on nation states, but, some distinct external territories may be listed if the database has enough information about them. Averages are calculated from as many valid data points as possible, meaning, that some territories and locations that are not listed above may still be used to calculate some of the average values. Some calculations only use Independent State data - hover the cursor over values to see hints.

Links:

2. Human Rights and Moral Development

“The Arab World and Asia ... a region where the mean and median levels of performance are probably most charitably labeled poor.”
"Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice" by Jack Donnelly (2013)₆

Pos.		Social & Moral Higher is better Points₁	Gender Inequality (2015) Lower is better₇	Nominal Commitment to HR (2009) Higher is better Treaties₈	Press Freedom (2013) Lower is better₉	LGBT Equality (2017) Higher is better Score₁₀
1	Hong Kong	77.5			2616
2	Taiwan	74.1			2382	25
3	Japan	73.5	0.12	14	2517	35
4	Korea, S.	67.9	0.07	20	2448	30
5	Singapore	67.3	0.07	5	4343	-15
6	Israel	67.3	0.10	12	3297	48
7	Maldives	63.0	0.31	15	3110	-19
8	Cyprus	62.6	0.12	20	1383	40
9	Brunei	62.3		6	3545	-14
10	Bhutan	60.6	0.48	3	2842	-20
11	Mongolia	58.7	0.28	17	2993	25
12	Malaysia	57.2	0.29	4	4273	-19
13	Qatar	55.2	0.54	10	3286	-54
14	Georgia	54.8	0.36	20	3009	35
15	Turkey	54.8	0.33	17	4656	25
16	Philippines	54.5	0.44	18	4311	20
17	UAE	54.1	0.23	7	3349	-34
18	Tajikistan	53.9	0.32	16	3571	11
19	Kuwait	53.8	0.33	12	2828	-37
20	Kyrgyzstan	53.4	0.39	18	3220	15
21	Armenia	53.4	0.29	17	2804	20
22	Vietnam	53.3	0.34	10	7178	25
23	Uzbekistan	53.2	0.29	14	6039	-30
24	Bahrain	53.0	0.23	12	6275	-2
25	Sri Lanka	52.7	0.39	13	5659	-10
26	Azerbaijan	52.6	0.33	21	4773	15
27	Oman	52.0	0.28	9	4151	-22
28	Thailand	51.4	0.37	11	3860	34
29	Nepal	50.5	0.50	13	3461	25
30	Kazakhstan	50.4	0.20	19	5508	8
31	Jordan	50.1	0.48	14	3847	12
32	Laos	50.0	0.47	10	6799	15
33	Lebanon	50.0	0.38	12	3015	-24
34	Turkmenistan	49.7		17	7914	-24
35	Korea, N.	49.3		7	8390	8
36	Indonesia	49.3	0.47	7	4105	1
37	Russia	48.7	0.27	17	4342	1
38	China	48.0	0.16	14	7307	12
39	Iran	47.8	0.51	9	7340	-19
40	India	47.7	0.53	10	4122	-10
41	Timor-Leste (E. Timor)	46.8		17	2872	30
42	Saudi Arabia	46.5	0.26	10	5688	-72
43	Bangladesh	46.1	0.52	15	4201	-17
44	Cambodia	44.8	0.48	16	4181	15
45	Myanmar (Burma)	44.1	0.37	4	4471	-10
46	Syria	41.0	0.55	14	7853	-84
47	Afghanistan	39.9	0.67	13	3736	-19
48	Palestine	38.9			4309
49	Pakistan	38.7	0.55	6	5131	-26
50	Iraq	36.1	0.53	9	4467	-29
51	Yemen	33.3	0.77	16	6922	-22
	Asia Avg	52.9	0.36	12.7	4378	-02.1
	World Avg	53.8	0.36	15.1	3249	12.6
q=51.

3. Religion and Beliefs

Pos.		Religiosity (2009) Lower is better %₁₁	Disbelief In God (2007) Higher is better₁₂	Jews (2010) %₁₃	Christians (2010) %₁₃	Muslims (2010) %₁₃	Hindus (2010) %₁₃	Buddhists (2010) %₁₃	Folk Religion (2010) %₁₃	Unaffiliated (2010) %₁₃
1	Afghanistan	97	0	0.1	0.1	99.0	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
2	Armenia	73	14	0.1	98.5	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	1.3
3	Azerbaijan	50	0	0.1	3.0	96.9	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
4	Bahrain	94		0.6	14.5	70.3	9.8	2.5	0.1	1.9
5	Bangladesh	99.5	0	0.1	0.2	89.8	9.1	0.5	0.4	0.1
6	Bhutan			0.1	0.5	0.2	22.6	74.7	1.9	0.1
7	Brunei		0	0.1	9.4	75.1	0.3	8.6	6.2	0.4
8	Cambodia	96	7	0.1	0.4	2.0	0.1	96.9	0.6	0.2
9	China		12	0.1	5.1	1.8	0.1	18.2	21.9	52.2
10	Cyprus	75		0.1	73.2	25.3	0.1	0.2	0.1	1.2
11	Georgia	81	4	0.1	88.5	10.7	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.7
12	India	90	3	0.1	2.5	14.4	79.5	0.8	0.5	0.1
13	Indonesia	99	2	0.1	9.9	87.2	1.7	0.7	0.3	0.1
14	Iran		4	0.1	0.2	99.0	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
15	Iraq	84	0	0.1	0.8	99.0	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
16	Israel	51	15	75.6	2.0	18.6	0.1	0.3	0.2	3.1
17	Japan	24	65	0.1	1.6	0.2	0.1	36.2	0.4	57.0
18	Jordan		0	0.1	2.2	97.2	0.1	0.4	0.1	0.1
19	Kazakhstan	43	12	0.1	24.8	70.4	0.1	0.2	0.3	4.2
20	Korea, N.			0.1	2.0	0.1	0.1	1.5	12.3	71.3
21	Korea, S.	43	30	0.1	29.4	0.2	0.1	22.9	0.8	46.4
22	Kuwait	91	0	0.1	14.3	74.1	8.5	2.8	0.1	0.1
23	Kyrgyzstan	72	7	0.1	11.4	88.0	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.4
24	Laos		5	0.1	1.5	0.1	0.1	66.0	30.7	0.9
25	Lebanon	87	3	0.1	38.3	61.3	0.1	0.2	0.1	0.3
26	Malaysia	96	0	0.1	9.4	63.7	6.0	17.7	2.3	0.7
27	Maldives			0.1	0.4	98.4	0.3	0.6	0.1	0.1
28	Mongolia		20	0.1	2.3	3.2	0.1	55.1	3.5	35.9
29	Myanmar (Burma)			0.1	7.8	4.0	1.7	80.1	5.8	0.5
30	Nepal	93	0	0.1	0.5	4.6	80.7	10.3	3.7	0.3
31	Oman		0	0.1	6.5	85.9	5.5	0.8	0.1	0.2
32	Pakistan	92	0	0.1	1.6	96.4	1.9	0.1	0.1	0.1
33	Philippines	96	0	0.1	92.6	5.5	0.1	0.1	1.5	0.1
34	Qatar	95		0.1	13.8	67.7	13.8	3.1	0.1	0.9
35	Russia	34	27	0.2	73.3	10.0	0.1	0.1	0.2	16.2
36	Saudi Arabia	93	0	0.1	4.4	93.0	1.1	0.3	0.3	0.7
37	Singapore	70	13	0.1	18.2	14.3	5.2	33.9	2.3	16.4
38	Sri Lanka	99	0	0.1	7.3	9.8	13.6	69.3	0.1	0.1
39	Syria	89	0	0.1	5.2	92.8	0.1	0.1	0.1	2.0
40	Tajikistan	85	2	0.1	1.6	96.7	0.1	0.1	0.1	1.5
41	Thailand	97	0	0.1	0.9	5.5	0.1	93.2	0.1	0.3
42	Timor-Leste (E. Timor)			0.1	99.0	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
43	Turkey	82		0.1	0.4	98.0	0.1	0.1	0.1	1.2
44	Turkmenistan	80	2	0.1	6.4	93.0	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.5
45	UAE	91	0	0.1	12.6	76.9	6.6	2.0	0.1	1.1
46	Uzbekistan	51	4	0.1	2.3	96.7	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.8
47	Vietnam	30	81	0.1	8.2	0.2	0.1	16.4	45.3	29.6
48	Yemen	99	0	0.1	0.2	99.0	0.6	0.1	0.1	0.1
49	Abkhazia
50	Taiwan		24	0.1	5.5	0.1	0.1	21.3	44.2	12.7
51	Nagorno-Karabakh
52	Northern Cyprus
53	S. Ossetia
54	Christmas Island
55	Cocos (Keeling) Islands
56	British Indian Ocean Territory
57	Hong Kong	24		0.1	14.3	1.8	0.4	13.2	12.8	56.1
58	Macau			0.1	7.2	0.2	0.1	17.3	58.9	15.4
59	Palestine	93		0.1	2.4	97.6	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
	Asia Avg	77.3	8.9	1.6	16.1	48.0	5.2	14.8	5.0	8.4
	World Avg	75.1	9.9	0.5	60.6	22.4	2.0	3.5	2.7	7.9
q=59.

Links:

Current edition: 2013 Nov 06
Last Modified: 2017 Dec 26
http://www.humantruth.info/asia.html
Parent page: Compare International Statistics by Region and Continent

Links

"What is the Best Country in the World? An Index of Morality, Conscience and Good Life" by Vexen Crabtree (2017)

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References: (What's this?)

Crabtree, Vexen
(2017) "What is the Best Country in the World? An Index of Morality, Conscience and Good Life" (2017). Accessed 2017 Dec 30.

Donnelly, Jack
(2013) Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice. 3rd edition. Published by Cornell University Press.

Gallup
(2009) Religiosity. gallup.com/poll/142727/.... The survey question was "Is religion an important part of your daily life?" and results are charted for those who said "yes". 1000 adults were polled in each of 114 countries.

Lynn, Harvey & Nyborg
(2009) Average intelligence predicts atheism rates across 137 nations. Richard Lynn, John Harvey and Helmuth Nyborg article "Average intelligence predicts atheism rates across 137 nations" in Intelligence (2009 Jan/Feb) vol. 37 issue 1 pages 11-15. Online at www.sciencedirect.com, accessed 2009 Sep 15.

Pew Forum. Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
(2012) The Global Religious Landscape: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Major Religious Groups as of 2010. Published 2012 Dec 18, accessed online 2013 May 01.

United Nations
(2013) Human Development Report. Published by the UN Development Programme. This edition had the theme of The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World. Available on hdr.undp.org/... UN Development Program: About the Human Development Index.
(2017) Human Development Report. Published by the UN Development Programme. Data for 2015. Available on hdr.undp.org/..

Footnotes

"What is the Best Country in the World? An Index of Morality, Conscience and Good Life" by Vexen Crabtree (2017)^^^
UN (2017) Table 1. Higher is better.^
UN (2017) Table 1. Lower is better.^
UN (2013) Table 14.^
World Bank data on data.worldbank.org accessed 2013 Nov 04.^
Donnelly (2013) p178. Added to this page on 2017 Dec 26.^
UN (2017) Table 5. Lower is better.^
Max possible=24. Total amount of treaties ratified. Nominal Commitment to Human Rights report published by UCL School of Public Policy, London, UK, at ucl.ac.uk/spp/research/research-projects/nchr accessed 2011 Apr 30.^
Reporters Without Borders Report "2013 World Press Freedom Index: Dashed hopes after spring" at fr.rsf.org/.../classement_2013_gb-bd.pdf accessed 2013 Feb.^
Sources:
- International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association annual report for 2017, on ilga.org accessed 2017 Sep 24.
- PF: Pew Forum on pewforum.org/Gay-Marriage-and-Homosexuality/ (page updated 2017 Aug 08). (Source of the quotes on religious opposition to LGBT).
- Wikipedia on en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_at_the_United_Nations accessed 2013 Apr 18. (Source of data on who signed the UN 2008 document and its opposing document).
- Wikipedia on en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights accessed 2013 Apr 18 (source of the civil union & legality of homosexuality legality by country).
^
Gallup (2009) .^
Zuckerman, P. (2007). Atheism: contemporary numbers and patterns. In M.Martin (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Atheism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. In "Average intelligence predicts atheism rates across 137 nations" by Lynn et al. (2009).^
Pew Forum (2011) - data for 2010.^

Which are the Best Countries in Asia?

1. Social and Moral Development Index and Basic Demographics

2. Human Rights and Moral Development

3. Religion and Beliefs