Iraq vs New Zealand

Iraq is 1.6 times larger than New Zealand — 438,317 against 268,838 km². Iraq is 8.8 times more populous than New Zealand — 47,020,774 against 5,324,700 people.

Side by side

Population density

Iraq is 5.4 times more densely populated than New Zealand — 107 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

• They drive on opposite sides — Iraq on the right, New Zealand on the left.
• Different currencies: the Iraqi dinar and the New Zealand dollar.
• New Zealand spans 2 time zones, so "local time" there is not a single answer.
• Different continents — Asia and Oceania.

Iraq

The Tigris and Euphrates run the length of the country and meet at Al-Qurnah to form the Shatt al-Arab. The Mesopotamian Marshes at their lower end are among the largest wetlands in western Eurasia. Uruk, on the Euphrates, was one of the first cities in the world.

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.