Malaya was the colonial British term for its colonies on the Malay Peninsula. The modern countries in the area are:

• Malaysia which incorporates most of the peninsula plus several island territories
• Singapore, a densely populated and highly developed island city-state at the tip of the peninsula
• The southern part of Thailand includes part of the Malay Peninsula, used to consist of Malay sultanates and continues to have a Malay Muslim majority in some provinces, but it was never politically part of Malaya.

Malay or Bahasa Malaysia/Bahasa Melayu is the main language of the area, with English being a common second language.