Determining the Central Asian country most similar to Southeast Asia requires considering various social, cultural, economic, and political factors.
One way to answer this complex question is by analyzing the data from the Country Similarity Index. The Index attempts to quantify how similar countries are to each other relative to other countries, using a variety of statistics from five broad categories: demographics, culture, politics, infrastructure, and geography.
The Index suggests that Turkey is the most similar Central Asian country to Southeast Asia. On the other end of the spectrum, Tajikistan has the least amount of traits in common with Southeast Asia.
(Southeast Asian countries are defined as Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam)
While there are certainly other countries in Central Asia that are slightly more similar to Southeast Asia in terms of demographics, infrastructure, and politics, Turkey stands out as having by far the most similar geography to Southeast Asia in the region.
Southeast Asia is one of the most densely populated regions in the world. Turkey is more densely populated than all other Central Asian countries, except for Azerbaijan. Furthermore, Turkey is the only Central Asian country that borders the ocean. All Southeast Asian countries except for Laos border the ocean as well. Like Southeast Asia, most Turkish people live in close proximity to the coast. Both Southeast Asia and Turkey have a lot of infrastructure for shipping, since they are both along major shipping routes. In addition, Southeast Asia gets much more rainfall than Central Asia. While Turkey does not have the wettest climate, it gets the second most precipitation in the region, after Tajikistan.
The Most Similar Southeast Asian Country to Turkey
The Country Similarity Index suggests that Indonesia is the most similar Southeast Asian country to Turkey. Southeast Asia has a diverse range of religions practiced. However, both Turkey and Indonesia are mostly Muslim. As a result, they have similar customs, like male circumcision and not eating pork. Furthermore, both countries primarily use the Latin alphabet. They also have about the same percentage of farmers and factory workers.
