China vs Poland

China is 31 times larger than Poland — 9,596,960 against 312,685 km². China is 39 times more populous than Poland — 1,406,585,000 against 36,435,861 people.

Side by side

Population density

China is 1.3 times more densely populated than Poland — 147 against 117 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 Polish złoty.
• 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.

Poland

The Wieliczka salt mine near Kraków has been worked since the 13th century and holds chapels, chandeliers and statues carved entirely from rock salt, about 300 m down. Białowieża on the Belarusian border is the last large fragment of the primeval forest that once covered the European plain.

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.