Netherlands vs Norway

Norway is 7.8 times larger than Netherlands — 323,802 against 41,543 km². Netherlands is 3.2 times more populous than Norway — 18,087,633 against 5,610,870 people.

Side by side

Population density

Netherlands is 25 times more densely populated than Norway — 435 against 17 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 Euro and the Norwegian krone.

Netherlands

About a quarter of the Netherlands lies below sea level and roughly a fifth of its present land area has been reclaimed from sea, lake and marsh. Flevoland, a province of some 1,400 km², was drained from the Zuiderzee in the 20th century and is the largest artificial island in the world. The lowest point, in Zuidplaspolder, is about 6.8 m below sea level.

Norway

The mainland coastline is about 2,500 km end to end, but roughly 25,000 km following the fjords, and over 100,000 km counting the islands — one of the longest coastlines of any country. Sognefjord runs 205 km inland and is 1,308 m deep. Norway generates almost all its electricity from hydropower.

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.