Colombia vs Italy

Colombia is 3.8 times larger than Italy — 1,138,910 against 301,340 km². Italy is 1.1 times more populous than Colombia — 58,915,656 against 53,425,635 people.

Side by side

Population density

Italy is 4.2 times more densely populated than Colombia — 196 against 47 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 Colombian peso and the Euro.
• Different continents — South America and Europe.

Colombia

The only South American country with coastline on both the Pacific and the Caribbean. It has more bird species than any other country, around 1,900, and more orchid species too. The Andes split into three separate ranges here, and the Chocó on the Pacific side is among the wettest places on Earth, with over 10 m of rain a year in places.

Italy

Italy has three of Europe's most active volcanoes — Etna, Stromboli and Vesuvius — and Stromboli has been erupting more or less continuously for at least 2,000 years. It has more UNESCO World Heritage sites than any other country. The Alps and Apennines mean about three-quarters of the land is mountain or hill.

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.