New Zealand vs Puerto Rico

New Zealand is 30 times larger than Puerto Rico — 268,838 against 9,104 km². New Zealand is 1.7 times more populous than Puerto Rico — 5,324,700 against 3,184,835 people.

Side by side

Population density

Puerto Rico is 18 times more densely populated than New Zealand — 350 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, Puerto Rico on the right.
• Different currencies: the New Zealand dollar and the United States dollar.
• 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.

Puerto Rico

The Puerto Rico Trench off the north coast reaches about 8,400 m, the deepest point in the Atlantic Ocean. El Yunque is the only tropical rainforest in the United States National Forest system. Mosquito Bay on Vieques is the brightest bioluminescent bay in the world, lit by dinoflagellates in the water.

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.