Indonesia vs New Zealand

Indonesia is 7.1 times larger than New Zealand — 1,904,569 against 268,838 km². Indonesia is 54 times more populous than New Zealand — 285,721,236 against 5,324,700 people.

Side by side

Population density

Indonesia is 7.6 times more densely populated than New Zealand — 150 against 20 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 Indonesian rupiah and the New Zealand dollar.
• Indonesia spans 3 time zones, so "local time" there is not a single answer.
• Different continents — Asia and Oceania.

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.

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.