---
title: "New Zealand vs South Africa — area, population, currency"
description: "New Zealand is 268,838 km² with 5,324,700 people; South Africa is 1,219,090 km² with 64,747,319. Area, density, currency, languages and time zones side by side."
url: https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/new-zealand-vs-south-africa/
site: "At One Place"
---

# New Zealand vs South Africa

**New Zealand vs South Africa: South Africa is larger; South Africa has more people**

268,838 km² vs 1,219,090 km² · 5,324,700 vs 64,747,319

South Africa is 4.5 times larger than New Zealand — 1,219,090 against 268,838 km². South Africa is 12 times more populous than New Zealand — 64,747,319 against 5,324,700 people.

## Side by side

|  | New Zealand | South Africa |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capital | Wellington | Pretoria (administrative); Cape Town (legislative); Bloemfontein (judicial) |
| Area | 268,838 km² | 1,219,090 km² |
| Population | 5,324,700 (2025) | 64,747,319 (2025) |
| Density | 19.8 /km² | 53.1 /km² |
| Currency | New Zealand dollar (NZD) | South African rand (ZAR) |
| Official languages | English, Māori, New Zealand Sign Language | Afrikaans, English, Southern Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu |
| Time zones | UTC+12:00, UTC+12:45 | UTC+02:00 |
| Calling code | +64 | +27 |
| Drives on the | left | left |
| Continent | Oceania | Africa |
| ISO codes | NZ / NZL | ZA / ZAF |

## Population density

South Africa is 2.7 times more densely populated than New Zealand — 53 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

- Different currencies: the New Zealand dollar and the South African rand.
- New Zealand spans 2 time zones, so "local time" there is not a single answer.
- Different continents — Oceania and Africa.

## 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.

## South Africa

One of only a handful of countries with more than one capital, and the only one with three. The Vredefort Dome south-west of Johannesburg is the largest verified impact crater on Earth, about 300 km across and 2 billion years old. The Cape Floral Region packs roughly 9,000 plant species into a small corner of the country, most of them found nowhere else.

> 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.

## Common questions

### Is New Zealand bigger than South Africa?

South Africa is larger — 1,219,090 km² against 268,838 km².

### Which has more people, New Zealand or South Africa?

South Africa, with 64,747,319 against 5,324,700.

### What is the time difference between New Zealand and South Africa?

New Zealand is UTC+12:00, UTC+12:45 and South Africa is UTC+02:00. Daylight saving shifts the gap during the year in places that observe it.

## Related pages

- [New Zealand](https://atoneplace.net/country/new-zealand/)
- [South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country/south-africa/)
- [India vs New Zealand](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-new-zealand/)
- [India vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-south-africa/)
- [China vs New Zealand](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/china-vs-new-zealand/)
- [China vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/china-vs-south-africa/)
- [Japan vs New Zealand](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-new-zealand/)
- [Japan vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-south-africa/)
- [Canada vs New Zealand](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/canada-vs-new-zealand/)
- [Canada vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/canada-vs-south-africa/)
- [Australia vs New Zealand](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/australia-vs-new-zealand/)
- [Australia vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/australia-vs-south-africa/)
- [New Zealand vs United States](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/new-zealand-vs-united-states/)
- [New Zealand vs United Kingdom](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/new-zealand-vs-united-kingdom/)

## Sources

- The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency (https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/) [Public domain (US Government)]
- World Bank Open Data — The World Bank (https://data.worldbank.org/) [CC BY 4.0]