Iceland vs New Zealand

New Zealand is 2.6 times larger than Iceland — 268,838 against 103,000 km². New Zealand is 14 times more populous than Iceland — 5,324,700 against 392,404 people.

Side by side

Population density

New Zealand is 5.2 times more densely populated than Iceland — 20 against 4 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 — Iceland on the right, New Zealand on the left.
• Different currencies: the Icelandic króna and the New Zealand dollar.
• New Zealand spans 2 time zones, so "local time" there is not a single answer.
• Different continents — Europe and Oceania.

Iceland

Iceland sits astride the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, so the North American and Eurasian plates pull apart across the country at about 2 cm a year. Roughly eleven percent of it is under glacier, Vatnajökull alone covering some 7,900 km². Almost all its electricity and heating come from hydro and geothermal sources.

New Zealand

Two main islands and around 600 smaller ones, roughly 1,600 km long. New Zealand broke away from Gondwana about 80 million years ago and had no land mammals except bats until people arrived, which is why so many of its birds are flightless. The Southern Alps run most of the South Island and reach 3,724 m at Aoraki / Mount Cook.

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.