Croatia vs Spain

Spain is 8.9 times larger than Croatia — 505,370 against 56,594 km². Spain is 13 times more populous than Croatia — 49,355,143 against 3,876,200 people.

Side by side

Population density

Spain is 1.4 times more densely populated than Croatia — 98 against 68 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

• Spain spans 2 time zones, so "local time" there is not a single answer.

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.

Spain

After Switzerland, Spain is the most mountainous country in Europe, with an average elevation around 650 m. The Canary Islands sit off Africa, which is why part of Spain is on a different time zone and why Teide, at 3,715 m, is the country's highest point. Spain has more olive trees than any other country, around 340 million.

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.