China vs Philippines

China is 32 times larger than Philippines — 9,596,960 against 300,000 km². China is 12 times more populous than Philippines — 1,406,585,000 against 116,786,962 people.

Side by side

Population density

Philippines is 2.7 times more densely populated than China — 389 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

• Different currencies: the Chinese yuan and the Philippine peso.

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.

Philippines

An archipelago of 7,641 islands, of which about 2,000 are inhabited. The Philippine Trench off the east coast reaches 10,540 m, one of the deepest points in any ocean. The country sits in the most typhoon-exposed part of the planet and takes around twenty named storms 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.