Japan vs Nigeria

Nigeria is 2.4 times larger than Japan — 923,768 against 377,915 km². Nigeria is 1.9 times more populous than Japan — 237,527,782 against 123,366,734 people.

Side by side

Population density

Japan is 1.3 times more densely populated than Nigeria — 326 against 257 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 — Japan on the left, Nigeria on the right.
• Different currencies: the Japanese yen and the Nigerian naira.
• Different continents — Asia and Africa.

Japan

A 2023 government survey using digital mapping counted 14,125 islands, more than double the long-quoted figure of 6,852. About three-quarters of the land is mountain, so nearly everyone lives on a narrow band of coastal plain. Japan sits where four tectonic plates meet and records a fifth of the world's magnitude-6-and-above earthquakes.

Nigeria

The most populous country in Africa, with roughly one African in six. The Niger Delta is the largest river delta in Africa at about 70,000 km², a maze of creeks and mangrove covering an area the size of Ireland.

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.