Chile vs China

China is 13 times larger than Chile — 9,596,960 against 756,102 km². China is 71 times more populous than Chile — 1,406,585,000 against 19,859,921 people.

Side by side

Population density

China is 5.6 times more densely populated than Chile — 147 against 26 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 Chilean peso and the Chinese yuan.
• Chile spans 3 time zones, so "local time" there is not a single answer.
• Different continents — South America and Asia.

Chile

About 4,300 km from north to south and averaging only around 177 km wide — one of the most elongated countries on Earth. The Atacama in the north is the driest non-polar desert in the world, and some weather stations there have never recorded rain. That dryness and altitude is why most of the world's large optical telescopes are built here.

China

The largest country in the world using a single time zone, so the sun rises in the far west around three hours later by the clock than in Beijing. China has a land border with fourteen countries — more than any other state except Russia, which also has fourteen. Its terrain runs from Mount Everest on the Nepalese border to the Turpan Depression at 154 m below sea level.

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.