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Southern Asia

Maldives

The Maldives is one of the 193 UN member states, in Southern Asia. UN Tourism counted 1.7 million international arrivals there in 2019, rarer than 56% of the 199 places with figures, so its stamp in Globestamp is printed in Hologram.

Maldives’s stamp in Globestamp
Hologram · 500,000 to 2 million visitors a year
International arrivals
1.7 millionin 2019, UN Tourism
Rank by visitors
112th of 199most visited first
Stamp finish
Hologramrarer than 56%
Area
109 km² (42 sq mi)
Population
531,000Natural Earth estimate
Atolls
20in Globestamp’s regions layer
Airports
15with scheduled flights

Does the Maldives count as a country?

Yes. The Maldives is one of the 193 UN member states, so every common list counts it: the UN’s 193, Globestamp’s 250 and the Travelers’ Century Club’s 330.

ListCounts the Maldives?
UN member states (193)Yes, a member
Globestamp’s countries and territories (250)Yes
Travelers’ Century Club (330)Yes, as Maldives
European UnionNo
Schengen areaNo

The Maldives stamp

Every country in Globestamp has its own stamp, drawn after a real entry stamp. Its finish shows how few travelers get there. The Maldives’s is Hologram: cracked ice, a mosaic of small mirrors, the finish for places with 500,000 to 2 million visitors a year. With 1.7 million international arrivals in 2019, the Maldives is rarer than 56% of the 199 places with figures. See every stamp on the stamp wall, or the rarest on the least-visited countries.

What counts as a visit to the Maldives

The common rule among travelers is that you set foot there: an airport layover usually doesn’t count, and a port where you went ashore does. Globestamp counts the Maldives when one of your photos was taken on its ground, or just off its coast; a photo taken from a plane never counts. Photos only at an airport make a transit stamp in lighter ink, counted only if you count layovers. Read more in how to count the countries you’ve visited.

Largest cities

CityPeople (urban area)
Malé112,927

Airports

The Maldives has 15 airports with scheduled flights, 3 of them large. Each is a dot on Globestamp’s airports layer, and every flight you log adds to how far you’ve flown (try the flight distance calculator).

20 atolls to fill in

Globestamp goes deeper than countries: its regions layer splits the Maldives into 20 atolls (Natural Earth’s first-level divisions), and each one fills in when a photo was taken there.

All 20

Addu Atoll · Alif Alif Atoll · Alif Dhaal Atoll · Baa Atoll · Dhaalu Atoll · Faafu Atoll · Gaafu Alif Atoll · Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll · Gnaviyani Atoll · Haa Alif Atoll · Haa Dhaalu Atoll · Kaafu Atoll · Laamu Atoll · Lhaviyani Atoll · Meemu Atoll · Noonu Atoll · Raa Atoll · Shaviyani Atoll · Thaa Atoll · Vaavu Atoll

Questions people ask

Is the Maldives a country?

Yes. The Maldives is one of the 193 UN member states, so every common list counts it: the UN’s 193, Globestamp’s 250 and the Travelers’ Century Club’s 330.

How many tourists visit the Maldives a year?

UN Tourism (via the World Bank) counted 1,703,000 international arrivals in the Maldives in 2019, the 112th most of the 199 places with figures. Countries count arrivals in different ways (some include day-trippers and cruise passengers), so treat it as a rough rank rather than an exact number of tourists.

How rare is a Maldives stamp in Globestamp?

It is printed in Hologram, the finish for places with 500,000 to 2 million visitors a year, rarer than 56% of the places with figures. The fewer travelers a place receives, the rarer its finish, from plain Ink to Mythic.

Does the Maldives count for the Travelers’ Century Club?

Yes. The Travelers’ Century Club counts it as “Maldives”, one of its 330 destinations.

Places as rare as the Maldives

Near the Maldives

Sources