🇲🇻 Maldives (Asia)

Visiting: RecommendedLGBT+ visiting: Not Recommended

Nowhere does barefoot luxury like the Maldives — seaplane in, snorkel with mantas off your villa's house reef, repeat. If you can, spend a few nights on a local island too; it's a different country out there and your money goes further. The caveat is legal: homosexuality is illegal in the Maldives, and while resorts look the other way, LGBT+ travellers should know the law they're under.

Homicide

Intentional homicides per 100,000 people — lower is better.

64.3(worst)
0.0(best)

Maldives: 2.1

Ranked 70th in the world for the lowest homicide rate.

An estimated 2.14 homicides per 100,000 people as of 2021 — a low rate by world standards. The last nationally reported figure was 0.62, back in 2019.

Lower than 62% of the 230 countries and territories measured.

Source: WHO Global Health Observatory homicide estimates · published 2024

Peace

How peaceful the country is — lower is better.

3.4(worst)
1.0(best)

Maldives: 1.6

Ranked 42nd most peaceful country in the world.

Not in the Global Peace Index, so 1.64 is our own estimate using its published method and weights.

Gang violence in Male, a high jailing rate, recurring political turbulence and a sizeable security force for the population all add up — the resort atolls see almost none of it.

Source: The Wander List estimate using the GPI 2025 methodology — data from Gallup, UNODC, World Prison Brief, SIPRI/World Bank, UNHCR and the Political Terror Scale · published July 2026

Freedom

Personal and economic freedom — higher is better.

2.5(worst)
9.3(best)

Maldives: 6.8

Ranked 89th freest country in the world.

The Human Freedom Index needs economic data Maldives doesn't publish, so this 6.76 is our own estimate — built with the index's published method: the same 12 categories of personal and economic freedom, equally weighted.

Day-to-day life (speech, movement, religion) scores 6.67; doing business and owning property, 6.88. Scored from the index's own underlying sources — V-Dem, Freedom House, UNODC, CPJ and World Bank data.

Source: The Wander List estimate using the HFI 2025 methodology — data from V-Dem, Freedom House, the Worldwide Governance Indicators, UNODC, UCDP, CPJ and the World Bank · published July 2026

LGBT

LGBT+ equality in law and daily life — higher is better.

0.0(worst)
9.3(best)

Maldives: Illegal

Ranked 55th least equal in the world for LGBT+ people.

Homosexuality is criminalised here, with a maximum penalty of eight years imprisonment and 100 lashes.

Public attitudes score 8 out of 100 — the law and public opinion are not the same thing.

Source: Human Dignity Trust, Map of Criminalisation · published 2026 (live map)