Indonesia vs Sweden

Indonesia is 4.2 times larger than Sweden — 1,904,569 against 450,295 km². Indonesia is 27 times more populous than Sweden — 285,721,236 against 10,596,620 people.

Side by side

Population density

Indonesia is 6.4 times more densely populated than Sweden — 150 against 24 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, Sweden on the right.
• Different currencies: the Indonesian rupiah and the Swedish krona.
• 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.

Sweden

Sweden has roughly 267,000 islands, more than any other country, though only a small fraction are inhabited. Around seventy percent of it is forest, and a seventh lies above the Arctic Circle. Its right of public access lets anyone walk and camp on most uncultivated land.

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.