Iran vs United Kingdom

Iran is 6.8 times larger than United Kingdom — 1,648,195 against 243,610 km². Iran is 1.3 times more populous than United Kingdom — 92,417,681 against 69,487,000 people.

Side by side

Population density

United Kingdom is 5.1 times more densely populated than Iran — 285 against 56 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 — Iran on the right, United Kingdom on the left.
• Different currencies: the Iranian rial and the British pound.
• Different continents — Asia and Europe.

Iran

The Lut Desert has recorded the highest land surface temperatures ever measured from orbit, around 80 °C. Iran is largely a high plateau ringed by mountains — the Zagros and the Alborz, where Damavand reaches 5,610 m, the highest volcano in Asia. The qanat, an underground irrigation tunnel, has been used here for around 3,000 years.

United Kingdom

Made up of Great Britain, the north-east of Ireland and around 6,000 smaller islands. No point in the UK is more than about 113 km from the sea. Ben Nevis, the highest point, is 1,345 m, which is modest — but the country has around 31,000 km of coastline once every inlet is counted.

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.