Ecuador vs Italy

Italy is slightly larger, by 6.3% — 301,340 against 283,561 km². Italy is 3.2 times more populous than Ecuador — 58,915,656 against 18,289,896 people.

Side by side

Population density

Italy is 3.0 times more densely populated than Ecuador — 196 against 65 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 United States dollar and the Euro.
• Ecuador spans 2 time zones, so "local time" there is not a single answer.
• Different continents — South America and Europe.

Ecuador

The summit of Chimborazo is the point on the Earth's surface farthest from the centre of the planet — about 2 km farther out than Everest — because the equatorial bulge lifts it. The Galápagos, 900 km offshore, are volcanic islands whose isolated species shaped Darwin's thinking. Ecuador is the smallest Andean country but holds a comparable share of the range's biodiversity.

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.