China vs Pakistan

China is 12 times larger than Pakistan — 9,596,960 against 796,095 km². China is 5.5 times more populous than Pakistan — 1,406,585,000 against 255,219,554 people.

Side by side

Population density

Pakistan is 2.2 times more densely populated than China — 321 against 147 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 — China on the right, Pakistan on the left.
• Different currencies: the Chinese yuan and the Pakistani rupee.

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.

Pakistan

Five of the world's fourteen 8,000 m peaks stand in northern Pakistan, including K2 at 8,611 m. Outside the polar regions, this is the most heavily glaciated place on Earth: the Karakoram holds several glaciers over 50 km long, among them Siachen and Baltoro. The Indus runs about 3,200 km from Tibet to the Arabian Sea.

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.