New Zealand vs Palestine

New Zealand is 43 times larger than Palestine — 268,838 against 6,220 km². Palestine is slightly more populous, by 1.7% — 5,413,596 against 5,324,700 people.

Side by side

Population density

Palestine is 44 times more densely populated than New Zealand — 870 against 20 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 — New Zealand on the left, Palestine on the right.
• Different currencies: the New Zealand dollar and the Israeli new shekel.
• New Zealand spans 2 time zones, so "local time" there is not a single answer.
• Different continents — Oceania and Asia.

New Zealand

Two main islands and around 600 smaller ones, roughly 1,600 km long. New Zealand broke away from Gondwana about 80 million years ago and had no land mammals except bats until people arrived, which is why so many of its birds are flightless. The Southern Alps run most of the South Island and reach 3,724 m at Aoraki / Mount Cook.

Palestine

The territory is in two separate parts: the West Bank, about 5,860 km², and the Gaza Strip, about 360 km². The West Bank includes the northern shore of the Dead Sea, the lowest exposed land on Earth at roughly 430 m below sea level. Jericho, in the Jordan Valley, is among the oldest continuously inhabited settlements known, with remains going back around 11,000 years.

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.