Maldives

The Maldives is an archipelagic country in South Asia in the Indian Ocean near the southeastern edge of the Arabian Sea, southwest of India and Sri Lanka, comprising 26 atolls and, at 298 square kilometers of land spread across roughly 90,000 square kilometers of ocean, Asia's smallest country. With an average elevation of 1.5 meters and a highest natural point of only 2.4 meters, it is the world's lowest-lying country, making it acutely vulnerable to climate change, and its roughly 515,000 residents give it high population density despite ranking as Asia's second least populous nation. The islands have been inhabited for more than 2,500 years; Islam arrived in the twelfth century and established a sultanate with strong regional trade ties, before the Maldives became a British protectorate in 1887, gained independence in 1965 and became a presidential republic in 1968. Tourism now dominates the economy, surpassing the historically vital fishing sector, and the World Bank classifies the Maldives as an upper-middle income economy with per capita income notably higher than other South Asian nations; it belongs to the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.