Germany vs South Africa

South Africa is 3.4 times larger than Germany — 1,219,090 against 357,022 km². Germany is 1.3 times more populous than South Africa — 83,491,249 against 64,747,319 people.

Side by side

Population density

Germany is 4.4 times more densely populated than South Africa — 234 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 — Germany on the right, South Africa on the left.
• Different currencies: the Euro and the South African rand.
• Different continents — Europe and Africa.

Germany

Germany borders nine countries, more than any other in Europe. The Rhine carries more freight than any other river in Europe. The country has around 25,000 castles and palaces, and the Black Forest and Bavarian Alps mean about a third of it is wooded.

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.