China vs Iraq

China is 22 times larger than Iraq — 9,596,960 against 438,317 km². China is 30 times more populous than Iraq — 1,406,585,000 against 47,020,774 people.

Side by side

Population density

China is 1.4 times more densely populated than Iraq — 147 against 107 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 Iraqi dinar.

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.

Iraq

The Tigris and Euphrates run the length of the country and meet at Al-Qurnah to form the Shatt al-Arab. The Mesopotamian Marshes at their lower end are among the largest wetlands in western Eurasia. Uruk, on the Euphrates, was one of the first cities in the world.

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.