Covering an area of 329,758 square miles, the Federation of Malaysia comprises Peninsular Malaysia and the states of Sabah and Sarawak on the island of Borneo. It is divided into 13 states and three Federal Territories, separated by the South China Sea.
In the northern part of Peninsular Malaysia lies Thailand, and in the south Singapore. Sabah and Sarawak are bounded by Indonesia while Sarawak also shares borders with Brunei.
More than 28 million people live in the country, of which around 57 per cent are Malays, while Chinese, Indian and other races make up the rest of the country's population. Malay is the national language, but English is widely spoken.
The country experiences tropical weather all year round, although Kuala Lumpur - because it is shielded by mountainous valleys on many different sides - is relatively cooler than most places in Malaysia while being one of the least affected by monsoon winds coming from the east or west. May until July tend to be the drier months and temperatures range between 29°C and 35°C during the day.
Copyright 2013 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source 10 Apr 2012
