For any abelian group $A$, we prove an asymptotic formula for the number of $A$-extensions $K/\mathbb {Q}$ of bounded discriminant such that the associated norm one torus $R_{K/\mathbb {Q}}^1 \mathbb {G}_m$ satisfies weak approximation. We are also able to produce new results on the Hasse norm principle and to provide new explicit values for the leading constant in some instances of Malle's conjecture.

We propose a framework to prove Malle's conjecture for the compositum of two number fields based on proven results of Malle's conjecture and good uniformity estimates. Using this method, we prove Malle's conjecture for $S_n\times A$ over any number field $k$ for $n=3$ with $A$ an abelian group of order relatively prime to 2, for $n= 4$ with $A$ an abelian group of order relatively prime to 6, and for $n=5$ with $A$ an abelian group of order relatively prime to 30. As a consequence, we prove that Malle's conjecture is true for $C_3\wr C_2$ in its $S_9$ representation, whereas its $S_6$ representation is the first counter-example of Malle's conjecture given by Klüners. We also prove new local uniformity results for ramified $S_5$ quintic extensions over arbitrary number fields by adapting Bhargava's geometric sieve and averaging over fundamental domains of the parametrization space.