The Republic of Singapore is an island city state on the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. Singapore is the smallest nation in Southeast Asia, and is 137 km north of the equator. The population is in the order of 4.9 million, and is the second most densely populated independent country in the world. Singapore consists of 63 islands as well as mainland Singapore: there are two man-made connections to Johor, Malaysia.
Malaysia used to have undeveloped terrain, both rainforest and agricultural land, but now has an almost entirely built up urban landscape, and continues with land reclamation projects, for example, by merging islands. Singapore has a tropical rainforest climate with temperatures ranging from 22 C to 34 C, high rainfall and high humidity. The only remaining area of rainforest is in a Nature Reserve.