China vs Puerto Rico

China is 1054 times larger than Puerto Rico — 9,596,960 against 9,104 km². China is 442 times more populous than Puerto Rico — 1,406,585,000 against 3,184,835 people.

Side by side

Population density

Puerto Rico is 2.4 times more densely populated than China — 350 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 United States dollar.
• Different continents — Asia and North America.

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.

Puerto Rico

The Puerto Rico Trench off the north coast reaches about 8,400 m, the deepest point in the Atlantic Ocean. El Yunque is the only tropical rainforest in the United States National Forest system. Mosquito Bay on Vieques is the brightest bioluminescent bay in the world, lit by dinoflagellates in the water.

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.