China vs Thailand

China is 19 times larger than Thailand — 9,596,960 against 513,120 km². China is 20 times more populous than Thailand — 1,406,585,000 against 71,619,863 people.

Side by side

Population density

China is slightly more densely populated, by 5.0% — 147 against 140 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, Thailand on the left.
• Different currencies: the Chinese yuan and the Thai baht.

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.

Thailand

Roughly 3,200 km of coastline on two separate seas, the Andaman and the Gulf of Thailand, joined only by the narrow Kra Isthmus. The country's full ceremonial name for Bangkok, Krung Thep Mahanakhon and the rest, is the longest place name in the world at 168 letters in transliteration.

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.