Iraq vs Russia

Russia is 39 times larger than Iraq — 17,098,242 against 438,317 km². Russia is 3.1 times more populous than Iraq — 143,513,328 against 47,020,774 people.

Side by side

Population density

Iraq is 13 times more densely populated than Russia — 107 against 8 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 Iraqi dinar and the Russian ruble.
• Russia spans 11 time zones, so "local time" there is not a single answer.
• Different continents — Asia and Europe.

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.

Russia

The largest country in the world by land area, close to twice the size of the next one, and it spans eleven time zones. Lake Baikal in Siberia is the deepest lake on Earth at 1,642 m and holds roughly a fifth of the world's unfrozen fresh water — more than all five North American Great Lakes combined. Russia and China each border fourteen countries, more than any other state.

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.