---
title: "India vs South Africa — area, population, currency"
description: "India is 3,287,263 km² with 1,463,865,525 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/india-vs-south-africa/
site: "At One Place"
---

# India vs South Africa

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

3,287,263 km² vs 1,219,090 km² · 1,463,865,525 vs 64,747,319

India is 2.7 times larger than South Africa — 3,287,263 against 1,219,090 km². India is 23 times more populous than South Africa — 1,463,865,525 against 64,747,319 people.

## Side by side

|  | India | South Africa |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capital | New Delhi | Pretoria (administrative); Cape Town (legislative); Bloemfontein (judicial) |
| Area | 3,287,263 km² | 1,219,090 km² |
| Population | 1,463,865,525 (2025) | 64,747,319 (2025) |
| Density | 445.3 /km² | 53.1 /km² |
| Currency | Indian rupee (INR) | South African rand (ZAR) |
| Official languages | Hindi, English | Afrikaans, English, Southern Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu |
| Time zones | UTC+05:30 | UTC+02:00 |
| Calling code | +91 | +27 |
| Drives on the | left | left |
| Continent | Asia | Africa |
| ISO codes | IN / IND | ZA / ZAF |

## Population density

India is 8.4 times more densely populated than South Africa — 445 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

- Different currencies: the Indian rupee and the South African rand.
- Different continents — Asia and Africa.

## India

The most populous country in the world since 2023. The Ganges-Brahmaputra system drains the southern Himalaya into the largest delta on Earth, and Mawsynram and Cherrapunji in Meghalaya are the wettest inhabited places on record, with roughly 11 m of rain a year. Mumbai is the largest individual municipality; the Delhi urban agglomeration, which contains the capital, is larger still at around 33 million.

## 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 India bigger than South Africa?

India is larger — 3,287,263 km² against 1,219,090 km².

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

India, with 1,463,865,525 against 64,747,319.

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

India is UTC+05:30 and South Africa is UTC+02:00. Daylight saving shifts the gap during the year in places that observe it.

## Related pages

- [India](https://atoneplace.net/country/india/)
- [South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country/south-africa/)
- [India vs United States](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-united-states/)
- [India vs United Kingdom](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-united-kingdom/)
- [India vs Japan](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-japan/)
- [India vs New Zealand](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-new-zealand/)
- [India vs Italy](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-italy/)
- [India vs Russia](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-russia/)
- [India vs Mexico](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-mexico/)
- [India vs Spain](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-spain/)
- [India vs South Korea](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-south-korea/)
- [India vs Netherlands](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-netherlands/)
- [India vs Nigeria](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-nigeria/)
- [India vs Turkey](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-turkey/)

## 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]