New Zealand vs Panama

New Zealand is 3.6 times larger than Panama — 268,838 against 75,420 km². New Zealand is 1.2 times more populous than Panama — 5,324,700 against 4,571,189 people.

Side by side

Population density

Panama is 3.1 times more densely populated than New Zealand — 61 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, Panama on the right.
• Different currencies: the New Zealand dollar and the Panamanian balboa.
• New Zealand spans 2 time zones, so "local time" there is not a single answer.
• Different continents — Oceania and North America.

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.

Panama

The canal is 82 km long and lifts ships 26 m up to Gatún Lake and back down, using gravity-fed fresh water rather than pumps. Because the isthmus curves, a ship going from the Atlantic to the Pacific travels roughly south-east. The Darién Gap is the only break in the 30,000 km Pan-American Highway.

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.