France vs Taiwan

France is 18 times larger than Taiwan — 643,801 against 35,980 km². France is 2.9 times more populous than Taiwan — 68,720,337 against 23,600,776 people.

Side by side

Population density

Taiwan is 6.1 times more densely populated than France — 656 against 107 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 Euro and the New Taiwan dollar.
• Different continents — Europe and Asia.

France

Mont Blanc on the Italian border is 4,806 m, the highest point in western Europe. Counting its overseas departments, France spans twelve time zones — more than any other country — and its exclusive economic zone is the second largest in the world. The Gouffre Mirolda and other Alpine systems make it one of the great caving countries.

Taiwan

A mountainous island: 268 peaks rise above 3,000 m in an area smaller than Switzerland, and Yushan reaches 3,952 m. Taroko Gorge is cut about 19 km through marble. The island sits on the Ring of Fire and the Tropic of Cancer crosses it, so the south is tropical and the high interior gets snow.

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.