The Most Similar Countries to East Asia

(East Asian countries defined as China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan)

Determining the countries most similar to East 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.

According to the data, South Korea is the most average country in East Asia. However, East Asia is extremely diverse, so no country in the region is especially average. North Korea is an outlier within East Asia, but South Korea at least has the same language and writing as North Korea. They also share the same peninsula. Like many countries in East Asia, South Korea is mountainous and densely populated with many skyscrapers in its large cities. Much of its land is close to the ocean too. Its agriculture is typical for the region as well, since rice is its most common crop.

Outside of East Asia, Vietnam stands out as having by far the most similar country to the region. One reason is that people in Vietnam primarily follow Mahayana Buddhism. Vietnam’s historical ties with China have influenced the architecture of temples and pagodas. They also use Chinese Buddhist texts and incorporate Confucian and Taoist elements. In addition, Vietnam is the least religious country in Southeast Asia. Like China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea, the country has many atheists. Furthermore, it is another densely populated nation in Asia that has a lot of coastline on the Pacific Ocean.

The data shows that the least similar country to East Asia is Niger. Its geography is extremely different from East Asia, since it is a landlocked country in Africa that has a barren landscape and relatively flat land. The country is predominately Muslim and its people have Sub-Saharan African ancestry. Furthermore, Niger’s infrastructure and quality of life is significantly less advanced than in East Asia. Less than fifty percent of Niger’s people are literate. While East Asia has some of the countries with the oldest populations in the world, the median age of Niger’s population is the youngest in the world.