---
title: "Egypt vs South Africa — area, population, currency"
description: "Egypt is 1,001,450 km² with 118,365,995 people; South Africa is 1,219,090 km² with 64,747,319. Area, density, currency, languages and time zones side by side."
url: https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/egypt-vs-south-africa/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Egypt vs South Africa

**Egypt vs South Africa: South Africa is larger; Egypt has more people**

1,001,450 km² vs 1,219,090 km² · 118,365,995 vs 64,747,319

South Africa is 1.2 times larger than Egypt — 1,219,090 against 1,001,450 km². Egypt is 1.8 times more populous than South Africa — 118,365,995 against 64,747,319 people.

## Side by side

|  | Egypt | South Africa |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capital | Cairo | Pretoria (administrative); Cape Town (legislative); Bloemfontein (judicial) |
| Area | 1,001,450 km² | 1,219,090 km² |
| Population | 118,365,995 (2025) | 64,747,319 (2025) |
| Density | 118.2 /km² | 53.1 /km² |
| Currency | Egyptian pound (EGP) | South African rand (ZAR) |
| Official languages | Arabic | Afrikaans, English, Southern Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu |
| Time zones | UTC+02:00 | UTC+02:00 |
| Calling code | +20 | +27 |
| Drives on the | right | left |
| Continent | Africa | Africa |
| ISO codes | EG / EGY | ZA / ZAF |

## Population density

Egypt is 2.2 times more densely populated than South Africa — 118 against 53 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 — Egypt on the right, South Africa on the left.
- Different currencies: the Egyptian pound and the South African rand.

## Egypt

Almost the entire population lives on the Nile valley and delta, which is only a few percent of the country's land area; the rest is desert. The Nile runs about 6,650 km from its headwaters to the Mediterranean. The Suez Canal, 193 km long, has no locks because the Mediterranean and Red Sea are close to the same level.

## South Africa

One of only a handful of countries with more than one capital, and the only one with three. The Vredefort Dome south-west of Johannesburg is the largest verified impact crater on Earth, about 300 km across and 2 billion years old. The Cape Floral Region packs roughly 9,000 plant species into a small corner of the country, most of them found nowhere else.

> 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.

## Common questions

### Is Egypt bigger than South Africa?

South Africa is larger — 1,219,090 km² against 1,001,450 km².

### Which has more people, Egypt or South Africa?

Egypt, with 118,365,995 against 64,747,319.

### What is the time difference between Egypt and South Africa?

Egypt is UTC+02:00 and South Africa is UTC+02:00. Daylight saving shifts the gap during the year in places that observe it.

## Related pages

- [Egypt](https://atoneplace.net/country/egypt/)
- [South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country/south-africa/)
- [India vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-south-africa/)
- [China vs Egypt](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/china-vs-egypt/)
- [China vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/china-vs-south-africa/)
- [Japan vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-south-africa/)
- [Canada vs Egypt](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/canada-vs-egypt/)
- [Canada vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/canada-vs-south-africa/)
- [Australia vs Egypt](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/australia-vs-egypt/)
- [Australia vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/australia-vs-south-africa/)
- [New Zealand vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/new-zealand-vs-south-africa/)
- [France vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/france-vs-south-africa/)
- [Germany vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/germany-vs-south-africa/)
- [Italy vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/italy-vs-south-africa/)

## Sources

- The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency (https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/) [Public domain (US Government)]
- World Bank Open Data — The World Bank (https://data.worldbank.org/) [CC BY 4.0]