---
title: "Argentina vs South Africa — area, population, currency"
description: "Argentina is 2,780,400 km² with 45,851,378 people; South Africa is 1,219,090 km² with 64,747,319. Area, density, currency, languages and time zones side by side."
url: https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/argentina-vs-south-africa/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Argentina vs South Africa

**Argentina vs South Africa: Argentina is larger; South Africa has more people**

2,780,400 km² vs 1,219,090 km² · 45,851,378 vs 64,747,319

Argentina is 2.3 times larger than South Africa — 2,780,400 against 1,219,090 km². South Africa is 1.4 times more populous than Argentina — 64,747,319 against 45,851,378 people.

## Side by side

|  | Argentina | South Africa |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capital | Buenos Aires | Pretoria (administrative); Cape Town (legislative); Bloemfontein (judicial) |
| Area | 2,780,400 km² | 1,219,090 km² |
| Population | 45,851,378 (2025) | 64,747,319 (2025) |
| Density | 16.5 /km² | 53.1 /km² |
| Currency | Argentine peso (ARS) | South African rand (ZAR) |
| Official languages | Spanish | Afrikaans, English, Southern Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu |
| Time zones | UTC-03:00 | UTC+02:00 |
| Calling code | +54 | +27 |
| Drives on the | right | left |
| Continent | South America | Africa |
| ISO codes | AR / ARG | ZA / ZAF |

## Population density

South Africa is 3.2 times more densely populated than Argentina — 53 against 16 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

- They drive on opposite sides — Argentina on the right, South Africa on the left.
- Different currencies: the Argentine peso and the South African rand.
- Different continents — South America and Africa.

## Argentina

The eighth-largest country in the world and the largest Spanish-speaking one. Aconcagua at 6,961 m is the highest mountain outside Asia; the Laguna del Carbón, about 1,000 km away, is 105 m below sea level and the lowest point in the western hemisphere. Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego is the southernmost city of any size on Earth.

## South Africa

One of only a handful of countries with more than one capital, and the only one with three. The Vredefort Dome south-west of Johannesburg is the largest verified impact crater on Earth, about 300 km across and 2 billion years old. The Cape Floral Region packs roughly 9,000 plant species into a small corner of the country, most of them found nowhere else.

> 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.

## Common questions

### Is Argentina bigger than South Africa?

Argentina is larger — 2,780,400 km² against 1,219,090 km².

### Which has more people, Argentina or South Africa?

South Africa, with 64,747,319 against 45,851,378.

### What is the time difference between Argentina and South Africa?

Argentina is UTC-03:00 and South Africa is UTC+02:00. Daylight saving shifts the gap during the year in places that observe it.

## Related pages

- [Argentina](https://atoneplace.net/country/argentina/)
- [South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country/south-africa/)
- [India vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-south-africa/)
- [China vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/china-vs-south-africa/)
- [Japan vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-south-africa/)
- [Canada vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/canada-vs-south-africa/)
- [Australia vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/australia-vs-south-africa/)
- [New Zealand vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/new-zealand-vs-south-africa/)
- [France vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/france-vs-south-africa/)
- [Germany vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/germany-vs-south-africa/)
- [Italy vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/italy-vs-south-africa/)
- [Russia vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/russia-vs-south-africa/)
- [Mexico vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/mexico-vs-south-africa/)
- [Brazil vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/brazil-vs-south-africa/)

## Sources

- The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency (https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/) [Public domain (US Government)]
- World Bank Open Data — The World Bank (https://data.worldbank.org/) [CC BY 4.0]