Chile vs Spain

Chile is 1.5 times larger than Spain — 756,102 against 505,370 km². Spain is 2.5 times more populous than Chile — 49,355,143 against 19,859,921 people.

Side by side

Population density

Spain is 3.7 times more densely populated than Chile — 98 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 Euro.
• Chile spans 3 time zones, so "local time" there is not a single answer.
• Different continents — South America and Europe.

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.

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.