---
title: "Indonesia vs South Africa — area, population, currency"
description: "Indonesia is 1,904,569 km² with 285,721,236 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/indonesia-vs-south-africa/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Indonesia vs South Africa

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

1,904,569 km² vs 1,219,090 km² · 285,721,236 vs 64,747,319

Indonesia is 1.6 times larger than South Africa — 1,904,569 against 1,219,090 km². Indonesia is 4.4 times more populous than South Africa — 285,721,236 against 64,747,319 people.

## Side by side

|  | Indonesia | South Africa |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capital | Jakarta | Pretoria (administrative); Cape Town (legislative); Bloemfontein (judicial) |
| Area | 1,904,569 km² | 1,219,090 km² |
| Population | 285,721,236 (2025) | 64,747,319 (2025) |
| Density | 150.0 /km² | 53.1 /km² |
| Currency | Indonesian rupiah (IDR) | South African rand (ZAR) |
| Official languages | Indonesian | Afrikaans, English, Southern Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu |
| Time zones | UTC+07:00, UTC+08:00, UTC+09:00 | UTC+02:00 |
| Calling code | +62 | +27 |
| Drives on the | left | left |
| Continent | Asia | Africa |
| ISO codes | ID / IDN | ZA / ZAF |

## Population density

Indonesia is 2.8 times more densely populated than South Africa — 150 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 Indonesian rupiah and the South African rand.
- Indonesia spans 3 time zones, so "local time" there is not a single answer.
- Different continents — Asia and Africa.

## 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.

## 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 Indonesia bigger than South Africa?

Indonesia is larger — 1,904,569 km² against 1,219,090 km².

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

Indonesia, with 285,721,236 against 64,747,319.

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

Indonesia is UTC+07:00, UTC+08:00, UTC+09:00 and South Africa is UTC+02:00. Daylight saving shifts the gap during the year in places that observe it.

## Related pages

- [Indonesia](https://atoneplace.net/country/indonesia/)
- [South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country/south-africa/)
- [India vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-south-africa/)
- [India vs Indonesia](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-indonesia/)
- [China vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/china-vs-south-africa/)
- [China vs Indonesia](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/china-vs-indonesia/)
- [Japan vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-south-africa/)
- [Canada vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/canada-vs-south-africa/)
- [Canada vs Indonesia](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/canada-vs-indonesia/)
- [Australia vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/australia-vs-south-africa/)
- [Australia vs Indonesia](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/australia-vs-indonesia/)
- [New Zealand vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/new-zealand-vs-south-africa/)
- [France vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/france-vs-south-africa/)
- [France vs Indonesia](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/france-vs-indonesia/)

## 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]