Croatia vs New Zealand

New Zealand is 4.8 times larger than Croatia — 268,838 against 56,594 km². New Zealand is 1.4 times more populous than Croatia — 5,324,700 against 3,876,200 people.

Side by side

Population density

Croatia is 3.5 times more densely populated than New Zealand — 68 against 20 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 — Croatia on the right, New Zealand on the left.
• Different currencies: the Euro and the New Zealand dollar.
• New Zealand spans 2 time zones, so "local time" there is not a single answer.
• Different continents — Europe and Oceania.

Croatia

The Adriatic coast is about 1,780 km long as the crow flies but roughly 6,000 km including the 1,200-odd islands, islets and reefs, of which about fifty are inhabited. Plitvice is sixteen terraced lakes linked by waterfalls, dammed by travertine that the water itself deposits and which is still growing about a centimetre a year.

New Zealand

Two main islands and around 600 smaller ones, roughly 1,600 km long. New Zealand broke away from Gondwana about 80 million years ago and had no land mammals except bats until people arrived, which is why so many of its birds are flightless. The Southern Alps run most of the South Island and reach 3,724 m at Aoraki / Mount Cook.

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.