Finland vs Italy

Finland is 1.1 times larger than Italy — 338,145 against 301,340 km². Italy is 10 times more populous than Finland — 58,915,656 against 5,646,436 people.

Side by side

Population density

Italy is 12 times more densely populated than Finland — 196 against 17 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.

Finland

Finland has roughly 188,000 lakes and 179,000 islands, more of each per unit area than any other country. About three-quarters of the land is forest, the highest proportion in Europe. A quarter of the country lies north of the Arctic Circle, where the sun stays up for weeks in summer and down for weeks in winter.

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.