Italy vs Pakistan

Pakistan is 2.6 times larger than Italy — 796,095 against 301,340 km². Pakistan is 4.3 times more populous than Italy — 255,219,554 against 58,915,656 people.

Side by side

Population density

Pakistan is 1.6 times more densely populated than Italy — 321 against 196 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, Pakistan on the left.
• Different currencies: the Euro and the Pakistani rupee.
• Different continents — Europe and Asia.

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.

Pakistan

Five of the world's fourteen 8,000 m peaks stand in northern Pakistan, including K2 at 8,611 m. Outside the polar regions, this is the most heavily glaciated place on Earth: the Karakoram holds several glaciers over 50 km long, among them Siachen and Baltoro. The Indus runs about 3,200 km from Tibet to the Arabian Sea.

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.