China vs Croatia

China is 170 times larger than Croatia — 9,596,960 against 56,594 km². China is 363 times more populous than Croatia — 1,406,585,000 against 3,876,200 people.

Side by side

Population density

China is 2.1 times more densely populated than Croatia — 147 against 68 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 Chinese yuan and the Euro.
• Different continents — Asia and Europe.

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.

Croatia

The Adriatic coast is about 1,780 km long as the crow flies but roughly 6,000 km including the 1,200-odd islands, islets and reefs, of which about fifty are inhabited. Plitvice is sixteen terraced lakes linked by waterfalls, dammed by travertine that the water itself deposits and which is still growing about a centimetre a year.

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.