Indonesia vs Netherlands

Indonesia is 46 times larger than Netherlands — 1,904,569 against 41,543 km². Indonesia is 16 times more populous than Netherlands — 285,721,236 against 18,087,633 people.

Side by side

Population density

Netherlands is 2.9 times more densely populated than Indonesia — 435 against 150 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 — Indonesia on the left, Netherlands on the right.
• Different currencies: the Indonesian rupiah and the Euro.
• Indonesia spans 3 time zones, so "local time" there is not a single answer.
• Different continents — Asia and Europe.

Indonesia

The largest archipelago in the world: official surveys count more than 17,000 islands, of which around 6,000 are inhabited, spread over 5,100 km of ocean. Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and has about 130 active volcanoes, more than any other country. It also holds more of the world's remaining tropical peatland than anywhere except the Congo basin.

Netherlands

About a quarter of the Netherlands lies below sea level and roughly a fifth of its present land area has been reclaimed from sea, lake and marsh. Flevoland, a province of some 1,400 km², was drained from the Zuiderzee in the 20th century and is the largest artificial island in the world. The lowest point, in Zuidplaspolder, is about 6.8 m below sea level.

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.