Algeria vs Spain

Algeria is 4.7 times larger than Spain — 2,381,740 against 505,370 km². Spain is slightly more populous, by 4.0% — 49,355,143 against 47,435,312 people.

Side by side

Population density

Spain is 4.9 times more densely populated than Algeria — 98 against 20 people per km². Density is where area and population interact, and it often reverses the impression the headline figures give — a large country with a small population can feel emptier than a small crowded one by an enormous margin.

Practical differences

• Different currencies: the Algerian dinar and the Euro.
• Spain spans 2 time zones, so "local time" there is not a single answer.
• Different continents — Africa and Europe.

Algeria

The largest country in Africa, and the tenth largest in the world. About four-fifths of it is Sahara, so nearly the whole population lives on the Mediterranean strip in the north. The Hoggar mountains in the deep south rise above 2,900 m and get frost.

Spain

After Switzerland, Spain is the most mountainous country in Europe, with an average elevation around 650 m. The Canary Islands sit off Africa, which is why part of Spain is on a different time zone and why Teide, at 3,715 m, is the country's highest point. Spain has more olive trees than any other country, around 340 million.

Neutral facts only. Nothing here addresses politics, government, economics or which country is preferable in any respect — population is the one figure that dates, and it carries its year.