---
title: "Brazil vs South Africa — area, population, currency"
description: "Brazil is 8,515,770 km² with 212,812,405 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/brazil-vs-south-africa/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Brazil vs South Africa

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

8,515,770 km² vs 1,219,090 km² · 212,812,405 vs 64,747,319

Brazil is 7.0 times larger than South Africa — 8,515,770 against 1,219,090 km². Brazil is 3.3 times more populous than South Africa — 212,812,405 against 64,747,319 people.

## Side by side

|  | Brazil | South Africa |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capital | Brasília | Pretoria (administrative); Cape Town (legislative); Bloemfontein (judicial) |
| Area | 8,515,770 km² | 1,219,090 km² |
| Population | 212,812,405 (2025) | 64,747,319 (2025) |
| Density | 25.0 /km² | 53.1 /km² |
| Currency | Brazilian real (BRL) | South African rand (ZAR) |
| Official languages | Portuguese | Afrikaans, English, Southern Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu |
| Time zones | UTC-05:00, UTC-04:00, UTC-03:00, UTC-02:00 | UTC+02:00 |
| Calling code | +55 | +27 |
| Drives on the | right | left |
| Continent | South America | Africa |
| ISO codes | BR / BRA | ZA / ZAF |

## Population density

South Africa is 2.1 times more densely populated than Brazil — 53 against 25 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 — Brazil on the right, South Africa on the left.
- Different currencies: the Brazilian real and the South African rand.
- Brazil spans 4 time zones, so "local time" there is not a single answer.
- Different continents — South America and Africa.

## Brazil

The fifth-largest country in the world and the largest in the southern hemisphere. It holds about sixty percent of the Amazon rainforest, and the Amazon River discharges roughly a fifth of all the fresh water that reaches the world's oceans — more than the next seven rivers combined. Brazil borders every South American country except Chile and Ecuador.

## 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 Brazil bigger than South Africa?

Brazil is larger — 8,515,770 km² against 1,219,090 km².

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

Brazil, with 212,812,405 against 64,747,319.

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

Brazil is UTC-05:00, UTC-04:00, UTC-03:00, UTC-02:00 and South Africa is UTC+02:00. Daylight saving shifts the gap during the year in places that observe it.

## Related pages

- [Brazil](https://atoneplace.net/country/brazil/)
- [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 Brazil](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/australia-vs-brazil/)
- [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/)

## 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]