Italy vs Kenya

Kenya is 1.9 times larger than Italy — 580,367 against 301,340 km². Italy is slightly more populous, by 2.4% — 58,915,656 against 57,532,493 people.

Side by side

Population density

Italy is 2.0 times more densely populated than Kenya — 196 against 99 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 — Italy on the right, Kenya on the left.
• Different currencies: the Euro and the Kenyan shilling.
• Different continents — Europe and Africa.

Italy

Italy has three of Europe's most active volcanoes — Etna, Stromboli and Vesuvius — and Stromboli has been erupting more or less continuously for at least 2,000 years. It has more UNESCO World Heritage sites than any other country. The Alps and Apennines mean about three-quarters of the land is mountain or hill.

Kenya

The Great Rift Valley runs the length of the country, and the equator crosses it just north of Nairobi. Mount Kenya reaches 5,199 m and carries glaciers within 20 km of the equator. Lake Turkana in the north is the largest permanent desert lake in the world.

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.